GLEN ST. MARY, Fla. – The family of a Baker County Green Beret hopes to make a lasting impact in his honor by saving the lives of local heroes after they lost their beloved hero in 2022.
Staff Sgt. George “Quint” Taber V, 30, died in August 2022 in a training accident in the mountains of North Georgia.
The idea his loved ones had for continuing his legacy? A park just for first responders and their families.
The goal? To improve their mental health.
The push? Funding for a first-of-its-kind getaway for Baker County deputies, firefighters, paramedics and soldiers.
GoFundMe: Donate to help create Baker County park for first responders
Devoted to help
Taber always knew he wanted to help people. That’s just the kind of guy he was as he grew up in Glen St. Mary, a town his family has been a large part of since the 1880s.
Taber’s parents believed medical school was on the horizon after he studied biology and chemistry in college.
“Quint” had different plans. He was an outdoorsman through and through. After college, he spent time in Alaska as a fishing guide and then a kayak eco-tour guide in Marineland.
Obituary: George “Quint” Lindley Taber V
Quint followed in his father’s footsteps and chose military service. However, he specialized in combat medicine.
“He married the two passions. He went into medicine,” said his father, George “Tab” Taber IV, who served as a Marine and then went on to be a Florida National Guard recruiter. “But like he told his sister, he said, ‘I need medicine that’s a little bit more adventurous.’ So, you combine the medicine with jumping out of planes and deployments, then he had found his passion.”
Quint enlisted in the Army.
The sky was the limit -- literally. He became a paratrooper and a Green Beret, where he was a special forces medic deploying to Central and South America. His stepmother, LaNell Taber, said he worked in clinics helping with everything from first aid to illnesses to dental emergencies.
“He was bouncing around, but he found his calling,” LaNell said. “He did. Anything that Quint ever chose to do, he did it with 110%, and he was loving this.”
Quint loved it so much that he aspired to take it one step further and become an elite Army Ranger. He transferred to Fort Benning in Georgia. That led him to the mountain phase with the 5th Ranger Training Battalion in Dahlonega, Ga. It’s seen as the most difficult part of Ranger training.
“To be honest, I thought he was exhausting,” wrote one of his fellow Ranger candidates in a poignant piece after his death. “He seemed to have an unlimited supply of energy and I was feeling sorry for myself, wanting nothing to do with him or his passion for being the best at whatever he did. I didn’t realize until later in the week that George was going to be the reason we all got through the course.”
“I remember telling LaNell, ‘At least he’s in training. I can’t imagine how these parents felt with their sons and daughters in combat,’” Tab recalled. “This is training, nothing’s going to happen. And then just a couple of days later, we find out that tragic things can happen in training as well.”
It was Aug. 9, 2022, and a strong summer thunderstorm came through. The soldiers took cover as wind and rain pushed in.
“They dropped their weapons, their packs, their helmets, anything metal, and then they were getting in the low area when rain and 60-knot winds came in and a tree uprooted,” Tab Taber said. “And it was so loud and so stormy that people don’t even hear the tree falling.”
The large tree fell on several soldiers. Leaders yelled for medics, including Taber. They didn’t know that he was under the trunk.
The tree collapse killed Taber and 2nd Lt. Evan Fitzgibbon, a promising recent West Point graduate from Central Florida. Fitzgibbon was only 23 years old.
At least five others were injured.
“The Army came to my aunt and uncle’s house, which is right next door to us,” Tab said, remembering when he learned the horrible news. “And they called us and said, ‘There are people in uniforms here looking for you.’ And I went, ‘Ah, hopefully, they’re deputies chasing somebody on the nursery.’ And so now they’re in Army uniforms. And then I went, ‘This is not good.’ But we were notified, and it was very, very hard.”
The news made its way to his mother and other family members in Montana. His loved ones were devastated.
“We have learned that pain and joy coexist,” LaNell Taber said, noting the families grieved together. “Loss is just something that we now are learning to abide by.”
New light
From darkness into light, Quint’s relatives are determined to use his name for good with a special park just for first responders and their families.
He was buried at Jacksonville’s National Cemetery and there are several memorial markers in his honor between Florida and Georgia. But his family wanted something more impactful.
“I heard Quint’s voice in my head, say, ‘Hey, Dad, there’s enough rocks with my name on it. Let’s do something that’s going to help people out and give back,’” Tab said. “And people think of PTSD as being a military thing. But our first responders and firefighters, I mean, they see trauma and horrific things, every week, every month.”
The idea for the SSG George Taber V Memorial Firehouse Project was born.
It’ll be on county property adjacent to Baker County Fire Station 50, which is just off Interstate 10 in Glen St. Mary.
Interestingly enough, it’s bordered by George Taber Boulevard, a road named after Quint’s great-great-grandfather, who laid his roots in the area in 1881, founding the nursery his family still lives on to this day.
PLANS: Concept draft for the George L. Taber Memorial Firehouse Project
“This will be fully landscaped,” Tab said as he walked News4JAX through the vision. “We’ll have a pavilion here with a small kitchen area, there’ll be a little walking trail, probably have a fire pit, pull-up bars. The vision is it’s a place for the first responders while they’re on their 24-hour shifts to come here. They can rest. They can study. If their kids have a birthday party while they’re on duty, they can bring their family here. They can grill out. They can cook. They can just decompress.”
Improving mental health
Baker County Fire Chief Trevor Nelson said the project is an exciting adventure.
“I embraced it because we care about our firefighters and our first responders,” he said. “Making sure that those folks were taken care of physically and mentally, and having a place for them to not only do a little bit of exercise outside, but also to clear their head and think.”
Statistics are startling.
According to the Psychiatric Times, citing a National Institutes of Health study, 30% of first responders develop conditions like PTSD and depression, 10% of first responders have contemplated suicide and 69% of EMS personnel report not having enough recovery time between traumatic incidents.
The county owns the land and commissioners approved the park plan.
From landscaping to bricklaying, contractors have already committed to helping, promising to help lower the tab. However, it’s still a tall task with a big price tag, so the Tabers started a GoFundMe account to raise money with hopes of breaking ground in the early part of 2024.
The goal of the account is to raise at least $75,000 to start construction. The page has taken in more than $26,000 since it was created in November.
Tax-deductible donations can also be made through the Baker County Veterans Council, which has established a specific fund for the project.
“It’s all a part of the healing journey, it’s a journey,” LaNell Taber said.
“And I think the adage that time heals all wounds, that’s a lie,” Tab Taber said. “Time does not heal. You never heal from losing a son or a daughter, or a parent. You learn to live with it. And then when you do something like this, you’re still remembering our son but you’re putting hands and feet into a project that’s going to benefit other people. So that that feels right. And I think Quint would say that was right as well.”