Tiffany Revelle
Record-Bee staff
LAKE COUNTY ? The flags over the Lake County courthouse flew at half mast Friday in honor of Sgt. Anthony Jason Schober, who died in a May 12 ambush south of Baghdad.
According to the Associated Press, the 23-year-old Schober was on his third tour of duty in Iraq with the Army”s Mountain Division”s Company D, 4th Battalion, 31st Infantry Regiment out of Fort Drum, N.Y. when he, six of his men and an Iraqi translator were ambushed.
Dave Schober, Sr., remembers his nephew Anthony”s youth in Clearlake, when he lived two blocks away and would spend as much time with him as he could.
“He was a good kid, and a very quiet kid. Quiet and serious,” said Schober, Sr. “He loved his sisters dearly.”
The young soldier”s family was in attendance at a funeral service held in Santa Rosa Thursday. Schober, Sr. said about 45 Schober family members and friends attended, eight from Clearlake.
“He was well loved by his comrades; it was like a family,” said Schober, Sr. He noted that several of Anthony”s Army buddies were present at the funeral, where he was honored with a 21 gun salute. “It was a very moving funeral,” he said.
“When the news came to me that he was dead, I was sitting at a bus stop in Modesto,” said Schober, Sr., recounting that the call came from his brother, Ed Schober, who had adopted Anthony at around age two when he”d married the boy”s mother Roberta.
He said he helped the family move from Rohnert Park to Clearlake when Anthony was around five years old. The family later moved to Gaddy Court in Kelseyville, and their time in Lake County spanned between three and four years, he said, before they ultimately moved to Carson City, Nevada.
“Everywhere he went he was well-liked,” said Schober, Sr.
Schober”s will directed that his body be sent back to Sonoma county because, according to his maternal grandfather Robert Asper of Rohnert Park, “This was where he was raised.”
Schober, Sr. contacted Board of Supervisors Chair Jeff Smith to ask that the flags fly at half mast on Thursday. Smith confirmed that the flags will continue flying at half mast through Monday.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
