Final farewell for Pasco soldier

[Will Vragovic | Times]

Tara Nelson kisses the gravestone of her fiance, Spc. Patrick Joseph (P.J) Miller, after the burial service Monday morning at Florida National Cemetery. The New Port Richey soldier died March 29, at age 23, in Baghdad.

FLORIDA NATIONAL CEMETERY, Bushnell -- More than 200 people gathered midday today to lay to rest Patrick Joseph Miller, the 23-year-old New Port Richey solider who was killed in Iraq on March 29.

Miller was buried among the 90,000 American veterans and their spouses at Florida National Cemetery, which was carved two decades ago out of the Withlacoochee State Forest. Rifle shots and the faint playing of taps at Miller's service jarred the quiet from the other funerals at the cemetery, which averages about 35 burials a day.

Miller graduated from J.W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey and attained a biology degree from the University of South Florida. He enlisted in the Army last spring, as he felt a duty to protect American freedoms, and he also saw it as a way to help pay for medical school. He wanted to be a surgeon. He was engaged and planned on marrying his high school sweetheart, Tara Nelson, 26, a student at the University of Florida, in a surprise wedding aboard a cruise this month. He was supposed to be home last Friday for a 30-day leave.

Miller leaves behind his mother, Kim Miller; his father, Patrick James Miller; his brother, Michael Miller, 17; and his half-brother, Taylor, 4.

Michael idolized his older brother and wants to enlist. His mother does not want him to. Michael also is engaged.

"He was perfect," Michael said after his brother's burial.

-- Erin Sullivan, Times staff writer

Previous coverage:

She was at home with Spc. P.J. Miller

Special report: Our Casualties of War

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