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Staff Sgt. Michael W. Schafer
SGT Schafer gave the Donkey a pep talk...now that is leadership! Michael on on Monte Pasuvio in Italy
In Kosovo
SGT Schafer in Chalakor Valley, Afghanistan |
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QALAT, Afghanistan — Staff Sgt. Michael W. Schafer didn’t have to deploy to Afghanistan. His hearing, it seems, had deteriorated to the point where he was to be discharged from the Army before Company C, 2nd Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment, was to leave. But Schafer wouldn’t have it. “He said ‘This is my platoon, these are my guys, these are my brothers,’” explained Schafer’s friend Sgt. Christopher Holbrook. So, with his brand-new hearing aids in place, Schafer deployed with the Vicenza, Italy-based unit. “He was one of our brothers, one of the ‘Chosen Few,’” said Company C commander Capt. Eric Gardner during a memorial service for Schafer at Forward Operating Base Lagman. Dozens of soldiers crowded the base’s dining facility Saturday to pay their respect to a fellow soldier and friend. Schafer was shot and killed while clearing a house in Oruzgan province July 25. He was the first man in the building — leading from the front — when he was hit. “He was not a sergeant who just told people what to do,” said the battalion chaplain, Capt. David Schnarr, choking back tears. “He led by example.” “His actions that day were nothing short of heroic,” said 1st Lt. Timothy O’Neal, Schafer’s platoon leader. The 25-year-old was awarded the Silver Star Medal for those heroic actions in which he was credited with saving the lives of two of his fellow soldiers. Schafer had already earned a Bronze Star Medal for the company’s deployment to Iraq in 2003 and early 2004. But it wasn’t just the tough-as-nails soldier that fellow company members will remember. They’ll remember that, before deploying to Afghanistan, Schafer visited the family of a Chosen Company soldier who had been killed in Iraq. They also remember long motorcycle rides through the Italian mountains and frequent plans to go hiking on their weekends off. “We only went twice, but we had lots of plans,” said Holbrook jokingly. Finally, they’ll remember a loving husband who was in the process of adopting a child. And Holbrook said that Schafer’s love for his country was only exceeded by the love for that family. Schafer had made the hard decision to leave the Army at the end of his enlistment — a decision, Holbrook said, that he felt would be best for his family. “He was a dedicated family man and loved his country almost to a fault,” Holbrook said. Schafer, of Spring Hill, Fla., is survived by
his wife, Danielle, and parents, Mark Schafer and Karen Barr.
"The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Enduring Freedom. "Staff Sgt. Michael W. Schafer, 25, of Spring Hill, Fla., died July 25 in Oruzgan, Afghanistan, when he was shot by enemy forces while on a quick reaction force mission. Schafer was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, Vicenza, Italy. "For further information related to this release, contact Army Public Affairs ..." That's what it said. That's all it said. Here's what it didn't say: Michael Wayne Schafer weighed 6 pounds when he was born Aug. 16, 1979, in Waukegan, Ill. He loved his mother's banana pudding. He worked as a busboy at Guido's Pizza Cafe on Forest Oaks Boulevard. It was his first job. The waitresses loved him. He got into a bad car wreck in high school in his two-door Ford Escort and had to be flown to Tampa. He got baptized after that at Spring Hill Baptist Church. Everybody said God was looking after him. The first time he went out on a date with Danielle Daye, he dropped her off in his blue-green Dodge Shadow, walked her to her door and kissed her good night, and she walked inside and said to herself: "I'm going to marry him. He's going to be my husband." He proposed to her on the sand in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in March 2000. They were married Dec. 30 of that year at Forest Oaks Lutheran Church in Spring Hill. He left for Kosovo a week later. They were going to live in Virginia. They were going to have kids. They were going to take a vacation, probably a cruise, just the two of them, as soon as he got back from Afghanistan. They were adopting her sister's son when he was killed. The process has been finalized. Devin Daye-Schafer is 3 and lives in Virginia and sometimes asks Danielle when he'll be able to see Mike again. Schafer wrote his mother a poem after he joined the Army. It ended like this: "I'll be back home before you know it." He re-upped after his first three-year tour. He was one of the first paratroopers to jump into Kirkuk, Iraq, in March 2003. Later that year, near Samarra, two of his best friends were killed by a roadside bomb. Schafer was killed in another country, in a different way, in a different year. The weekend before, in a call home, he and his stepfather had started planning a fishing trip for his R&R in October. He was supposed to come home from Afghanistan in March 2006. He was supposed to get out of the Army in January 2007. He is one of more than 900 American soldiers who were killed in 2005. He is one of the close to 2,500 overall since the start of the wars. He is the first from Hernando County. He is still the only one. He gave blood regularly at the local blood bank on State Road 50. He was a letter writer and a card sender. The casket was closed at his wake. According to the Christian Science Monitor in Boston, in a story by an embedded reporter that ran Oct. 31, this is how he was killed: Spc. Christopher Velez, of Brooklyn, N.Y., who is in the lead squad, says he senses something is wrong. Normally, children come up to American soldiers, asking for candy or pens. Here, there is nobody. Even the roosters are silent. The village follows the shape of the valley: narrow at one end, and then opening up, with houses along the outskirts. The men begin to search each of those houses, north to south. Specialist Velez's team searches houses. Sergeant Hormann and his men line up shoulder to shoulder and search the orchard. The Taliban are there. "We are close enough that we could hear their movements," says Hormann. "We could see the hand of some guy reaching for his weapon." ... On the eastern edge of the orchard, Velez prepares to cross an open field toward a pair of mud-walled homes about 50 feet away. But as soon as he steps on the grass, he hears Kalashnikov fire aimed at him. He ducks back into the orchard, while other team members move into position, and Afghan National Army soldiers fire at the rooftops of the closest housing compound. No one knows which home the gunfire is coming from. So O'Neal's men prepare to move in on the house to the left, while Sgt. Michael Schafer of Spring Hill, Fla., and the 2nd squad prepare to assault the house on the right. What happens next unfolds quickly. "I hear fire, and somebody calls for a medic," says Velez. Sergeant Schafer kicks down the front door, steps inside, and gunfire erupts. Schafer is hit, but doesn't die instantly. He pushes his team leader, Sgt. Brian Hooper, back out the door, before falling to the floor. O'Neal's squad rushes over. "Where's Sergeant Schafer? What's been cleared?" he demands. Sgt. Hooper is in shock. "When I see Hooper, I get scared. He's completely out of it," says O'Neal. Finally, O'Neal peers inside the doorway at an angle, and sees Schafer slumped against the wall. He reaches for an automatic weapon, an M-249, and steps a bit closer to peer inside. The room is shrouded in darkness. He tries to turn on his tactical light on his helmet, but it doesn't work. There are no Taliban fighters in sight, but they are there. "I'm not thinking very clearly," O'Neal admits later. "I just want to try to pull Schafer out with one hard pull." Finally, after three attempts and several injuries, O'Neal tosses smoke grenades into the room while three soldiers pull Schafer's body out. The men toss standard grenades into the room to kill the Taliban inside. ...
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