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Fallen soldier is honored

The action ensures Spring Hill will remember Staff Sgt. Michael Wayne Schafer, who was killed in July 2005.

By BETH N. GRAY
Published August 31, 2006

	[Times photo: Keri Wiginton]
	Danielle Schafer, center, her son, Devin Schafer, and her mother, Diane Huntley, watch a video of images of Schafer's late husband, Staff Sgt. Michael Schafer during a ceremony in his honor at the Spring Hill Post Office on Wednesday.

SPRING HILL - With more than 100 family, friends and admirers looking on, Staff Sgt. Michael Wayne Schafer was honored and immortalized during an emotional ceremony in his hometown Wednesday.

Schafer, a 25-year-old enlistee with the 173rd Airborne Division, was shot twice and died as he directed his squad during a firefight near Kandahar, Afghanistan, on July 25, 2005.

Now, thanks to an act of Congress, the 1998 Springstead High School graduate will never be forgotten in Hernando County.

The Spring Hill Post Office has been renamed the Staff Sgt. Michael Wayne Schafer Building. A plaque marking the new name and a dedication were unveiled Wednesday and will hang in the lobby.

The U.S. Postal Service hand imprinted the day's local mail with a special postmark, "Staff Sergeant Michael Wayne Schafer Dedication Station, Wednesday, Aug. 30, 2006, Spring Hill, FL 34606-4300."

Schafer's widow, Danielle Schafer, who married him on Dec. 30, 2000, said after the ceremony: "It's a great honor that he'll always be remembered. Years from now, people will remember."

Added U.S. Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite, R-Brooksville, who sponsored the congressional act, "It's a federal building and it's appropriate so we can always remember Michael's contribution to the global war on terror."

Brown-Waite and others lauded Schafer as a hometown hero, saying his spirit was embodied in his courageous leadership. "And his action will be immortalized," she said.

In sports and in the military, Schafer was a team player who always looked out for others, said his stepfather, Daniel Barr.

Even after watching two friends die in Iraq, Schafer "took the challenge again," signing up for a tour in Afghanistan, said James Bradley, who is retired from the 173rd Airborne.

"Because of his action there are fewer terrorists today," Bradley said.

Barr and Bradley said Schafer never would have wanted the honor of a building named in his memory; he would have credited others. But "the dedication of a federal building is critical to preserving his memory," Bradley added.

Brooksville postmaster Michael P. Jordan said the ceremony and dedication was to "pay respect to Schafer's memory, a lasting tribute."

He noted the military and Postal Service are intimately connected, with 212,000 veterans nationwide employed in the agency and 13,000 postal workers serving in the military reserves.

Schafer's mother, Karen Barr, wept quietly throughout the ceremony. She was comforted by Schafer's stepbrother, Tim Barr, 19.

Workers at the post office also presented Danielle Schafer with a bouquet of red roses.

Beth Gray can be contacted at graybethn@earthlink.net.

[Last modified August 30, 2006, 21:14:08]