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He had hoped to see the world

The Plant City man killed Saturday in Iraq left for the Army last spring, a week after high school graduation.

By ABBIE VANSICKLE
Published April 11, 2006

PLANT CITY - When Shirley Missildine's grandson enlisted in the Army and went off to war, she watched as the world transformed the Plant City teen into a mature young man.

"When he walked through the mall or the airport in his uniform, people looked at him with respect," she said. "They looked at him like he's a man."

Pvt. Jody Missildine was still a baby to his grandmother, though, and he always will be. Missildine died Saturday when an explosive detonated beside his Humvee in Iraq. He was 19.

No funeral plans were in place by Monday afternoon. His family was waiting for information about when his body would be brought to Florida.

"Life's just going to be so empty without him," his grandmother said.

Missildine, who was in the infantry, had signed up for the Army in high school. He wanted to satisfy his wanderlust and pay his way through college, his grandmother said. For a boy who grew up in a rural corner of Hillsborough County, the Army seemed like a good way to see the world.

"He still had the rest of his life to decide what he wanted to do," she said, her eyes glistening with tears.

Mrs. Missildine, 57, and her husband, Melvin, 58, were particularly close to her grandson. They raised him and his brother, Jason, 22. The boys' father, Kelvin Missildine, 40, lived in the area, but the boys lived with their grandparents.

The pair sat together on a couch in the living room of their Plant City home on Monday morning, unsure of what lay ahead. Photographs of their grandson were spread on the coffee table. In many of the photos, Missildine is a smiling toddler.

As a child, he wanted to be an archaeologist. He was always trying to figure out how things worked.

"He was very inquisitive," she said.

He grew up to be an athlete, joining the track and wrestling teams at school. He loved computers, Taco Bell and his cat, Tigger, whom he would cradle like a baby in his arms. At the end of high school, he got back together with a girl he'd liked in elementary school.

The couple stayed together while he was serving in Iraq. She was at her senior prom when she learned of his death, Mrs. Missildine said.

Much had changed for Missildine in the past year. He graduated from Plant City High School in the spring. One week later, he left for the Army. Religion began to play a bigger role in his life. He started attending Baptist services on a military base. He got a glimpse of Europe when he was stationed in Germany. Then he got word he would be going to Iraq.

The news troubled the family, his grandmother said.

"Germany was like a steppingstone to Iraq," she said. "I was very uneasy. But we tried to convince him, and he tried to convince us that it was all right."

For a while it was.

Her grandson was proud to be in the military, she said. Many of his high school friends had joined. When he came home for a visit in December, he seemed optimistic. He called his grandparents at least once a week.

But his attitude changed after a visit home in March, she said. When he returned to Iraq, he learned that a friend had been killed, and that another had lost a leg. He called home in tears.

His grandmother tried to reassure him, to tell him that everything was going to be all right. He'd come home safe and sound, she had told him.

"Little did I know that the very next week that was going to be it," she said.

--Abbie VanSickle can be reached at 226-3373 or vansickle@sptimes.com

[Last modified April 11, 2006, 02:30:31]