HOME
Continued From Page 1
Falluja, home to some of the strongest
insurgent opposition.
 It was a fateful separation. The first
weekend in May, the second battalion
lost seven men: two who died when
their convoy ran over a roadside bomb,
and another five who died in a mortar
attack. Another 33 were wounded.
 One of the five killed was Reservist
Ronald A. Ginther, the former Plant
City resident and first local casualty of
the war.
 Cundiff had come to know Ginther
while the two drilled together in
Tampa.
 The soldiers at Al Asad got word of
the fate of their comrades and held a
memorial service for them. Later, they
would have a bronze medal inscribed
with the names of the seven soldiers.
 Several of the casualties were part of
the Tactical Movement Team, or TMT,
which provides convoy security detail
to VIPs, high-ranking officials and
civilians as they travel.
 "I volunteered for it because they
needed to rebuild," Cundiff said. "We
never hesitated."
 He knew it would mean a much
more dangerous tour- literally- of the
country. The TMT spends most of its
time in convoys, crisscrossing Iraq in
Humvees and other heavily armored
vehicles.
 The danger didn't diminish during
the few times Cundiff was on base. As
part of the assignment, he was trans-
ferred from Al Asad, which rarely saw
mortar attacks, to Ar Ramadi, where
the booms of mortar and rocket attacks
were a daily reminder that Americans
were targets.
 Soldiers get used to being on edge,
he said.


 DAVE BUYENS/photo
Rachel Cundiff makes a welcome home sign for her brother before a party
hosted last weekend by their parents, Danny and Melody, at their home in Turkey
Creek. Daniel Cundiff turned 31 on Nov. 12.


 "You hear a boom and you're con-
stantly looking around wondering
where it hit. It's an adrenaline rush
every day over there," he said.
 On the road as part of the convoy,
made up of six Humvees with three to
four soldiers in each, Cundiff himself
was even more of a target, as he acted
as a gunner.
 There were several close calls. Once,
while at the base, an air burst, or a
device that sails through the air and
explodes over its target, rained shrap-
nel down close to the U.S. troops. On


another occasion, Cundiffs convoy
came under small arms fire.
 But after logging some 10,000 miles
around the country in just five months,
Cundiff's convoy seemed incredibly
lucky. They would hear about roadside
bombs affecting convoys ahead of
them or after they passed through, but
his convoy came away unharmed.
 "Everyone said the reason we didn't
take any more fire is we because we
had seven angels watching over us,"
Cundiff said.


 NOVEMBER 18, 2004 THE COURIER 17

 A family waiting
 Meanwhile, Stacey Cundiff was
back at home with the couple's three
children, Cory, 9, Brandon, 6, and
Alyssa, 3.
 On average, the couple would speak
once a week on the phone. Stacey
would go everywhere with the phone
so as not to miss a call. Once, she ran
over the family's cordless phone when
she forgot she'd placed it on the trunk
of her car.
 Stacey, who was raised in Cork and
graduated from PCHS in 1995,
adjusted as best she could to taking
care of her family without her
husband. She said she is fortunate that
Daniel's parents and her mother and
father, Shirley and Thomas Ross of
Plant City, were able to help her.
 Tears flowed often. Cory and Bran-
don played in a football. league this
year and it was tough for the family not
to have Dad there.
 "There wasn't a game that went by
that I didn't cry," said Stacey, who
attended Ronald Ginther's funeral,
alone, in her husband's stead.
 As her husband lived on edge, so did
Stacey, wondering if she might get the
dreaded visit from military officials.
 "Everybody in my neighborhood
knows not to ring the doorbell," Stacey
said. Instead, neighbors knock,
because the military would almost cer-
tainly ring the bell, she said.
 Her husband didn't share a lot of
details, partly because of military
policy, but also to. spare her more
worry. She was glad for it.
 "There were just certain things we
didn't need to know," she said. "And I
was already a nervous wreck."
 Cory's friends dealt with the mystery
of his father's service in war as typical
children do: with questions.
 See HOME, Page 18


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