In 1897, Mark Twain responded to a mistaken report that he had died, “The report of my death was an exaggeration.”

I was guilty of a similar exaggeration in the September issue of The Laurel Independent, reporting that one of Laurel’s military heroes, George T. Schaab Jr., had died in 1968. In fact, George Schaab is very much alive today at the age of 96. 

I mistakenly assumed that two dates on a Hometown Heroes banner honoring him on Main Street were his birth and death dates, like the dates on the other two banners there. I  now realize they are instead approximate dates of when Schaab began and ended his Army service.

I interviewed Schaab and his daughter after publication of the September issue of this paper. In talking with them, I learned that Schaab began his Army career in 1946, when he was 17 years old. He served for 23 years, retiring at the rank of staff sergeant.

Schaab served in Viet Nam, earning medals and commendations including a Purple Heart and a Soldier’s Medal, this second award for an incident that occurred in 1966. Schaab was in civilian clothes at a restaurant in Saigon when he noticed a disturbance at the entrance. “Sergeant Schaab observed an armed man threatening the owner and cashier with a .45 caliber automatic pistol,” an Army document citing his medal said. “While approaching the assailant, Sergeant Schaab quietly questioned the French-speaking owner, who informed him that the assailant intended to kill him (the owner), the cashier, and then systematically shoot all occupants of the restaurant. … Sergeant Schaab, deliberately and calmly, attacked him by gripping and immobilizing his weapon hand, pushing the weapon on half-cock safety. Sergeant Schaab grappled with the man until the weapon and the man were secured. … Sergeant Schaab’s heroic deed reflects the utmost credit upon him and the United States Army.”

As a retired veteran residing in Laurel, Schaab served eight one-year terms as commander of American Legion Post 60 between 1988 and 2010. His daughter said he still likes to have Friday lunches with his legion friends.