UNI OF FLA UjEhF-RY


 PUBLISHED WEEKLY BY THE TAMPA TRIBUNE



THE" COURIER


 PRSRT STD
 U. S. POSTAGE
 PAID
 TAMPA FL
PERMIT NO. 6238


PK y
404 LIBRARY VVEST
GAINESVILLE


YOUNG


OVEMBER 18, 2004 SERVING PLANT CITY, FLORIDA


FL 32611-2048


 in the
NEWS


The season's first
flat of strawberries
comes on time
despite a hurricane
season that set grow-
ers back.
 PAGE 3


BARBE(UE'


Bring out the napkins,
it's barbecue time.
The annual Pig Jam is
this weekend.
 ME 14


BRIMGGS


'Celebrating a day of
history.
 PAGE 8


INDEX


CALENDAR
PAE )


CLASSIFIED


CROSSWORD
mPA 2


 ,i I L i AA 1 J[ r u I L I u H T




 HOME



 AGAIN

 In a country where the roads
are fraught with danger, Daniel
 Cundiff logged 10,000 miles
 over Iraqi terrain as a Navy
 reservist. Now, he's home.
 B rON1 MARRERO
 tmarrero@mediageneral.com
 Right after volunteering for an assignment
he knew would be perilous, Daniel Cundiff
sat down to write a letter to his wife and chil-
dren "in case something happened."
 The letter was to be delivered to them it
Cundiff, a Navy reservist in the Seabees,
didn't make it home from Iraq.
 "I told her how much I loved them and
hated to be gone but that I had to serve my
 country, and
 how proud I
 was of them,"
 .. recalled Cun-
 diff, who was
 born in Lake-
 land and raised



 nine months in
 Iraq, during
 which he spent
 most of his
 Lime serving in
 one of the most
 --dangerous
 roles a soldier
 DAVE BUYENS/photo can fill. Cundiff
Cundiff's Seabee unit had is now safely
this bronze medal made in back with his
memory of the seven family in Lake-
members who were killed land.
in May. Among them was "I thank God
former Plant City resident I could come
Ronald Ginther. home and per-
 sonally tell


AMILY LIVING them," he said.
 WGE I Cundiff did let his wife, Stacey, read the
 letter. Then they burned it.
 "I cried, but it was a cry of happiness that
HONOR ROLL he was the one that gave it to me and not
 ME B someone else," Stacey said.
................. Last Friday, on his 31st birthday and after
 SSPORTS just more than a week home, Cundiff reflected
 r on his time in Iraq as part of the Naval Mobile
 Construction Battalion 14.
 A 1991 graduate of Plant City High School,
 WORSHIP Cundiff is the son of Melody and Danny Cun-
 PAE II diff of Plant City. He joined the Navy at 17,


 TONY MARRERO/Staffphot(
Daniel Cundiff said he thought about his family every day while serving as a Seabee reservist
in Iraq. It also a was a difficult nine months for his wife Stacey and three children, Cory,
Brandon and Alyssa.


right out of high school. Service ran in the
family his father served in the Army National
Guard, and his grandfather served in the U.S.
Army during the Korean War.
 Cundiff had two years of active duty, serv-
ing on the USS Kitty Hawk as an aviation
boatswain mate during the first Gulf War. He
joined the Seabees as a reservist in 2000, he
said, because "he missed the brotherhood of
the military and all that came with it."
 In February, the maintenance mechanic
for Mosaic, formerly IMC Agrico in Mulberry,
got word his unit was being mobilized. He
wasn't surprised, he said. He knew the Sea-
bees, who specialize in rebuilding schools,


hospitals, roads and other infrastructure,
would be in high demand after the violent
and destructive war in Iraq. The unit arrived
there in early March.
 "I was excited that I was going to serve my
country, but I hated to leave my family," he
said. "It's the sacrifice we have to make."

 A fateful split
 Cundiffs unit then split. Cundiff headed to
Al Asad Air Base, east of Baghdad, serving
alongside U.S. Marines, while other members
headed to Ar Ramadi, another base north of
 See HOME, Page 17


IN 1HETRIBUNE
Here's a preview of
what you'll find in
The Tampa Tribune's
Plant City section
Saturday:
] Culinary
students at Sim-
mons Career Center
in Plant City hone
their skills by offer-
ing breakfast to the
staff and public two
days a week.


UE~pu~~Kai


Start of one era, end of another
At left, Rich Glbrioso,
center, is sworn in
with other newly
elected members of
Florida's House of
Representatives
Tuesday morning,
Nov.16. At right, the
former Plant City city
commissioner takes
the House 62 seat of
House Speaker Johnnie Byrd, who slams the gavel
one last time before ceding it to Rep. Alan Bense,
R-Panama City.


 FA
..............