A funeral instead of a wedding for fallen soldier

Miller's mother, Kim, and father, Patrick. "He was a beautiful kid," his mom said.

NEW PORT RICHEY — Last week, the family of Spc. P.J. Miller was getting ready for him to come home from Iraq. He was supposed to arrive in Kansas this Friday, then travel to New Port Richey. During his 30-day leave from the war, Miller was going to take his fiancee on a cruise to the Bahamas, where he was going to surprise her by having the ship’s captain marry them.

Instead, his family is planning his funeral.

Miller and another soldier, Spc. Durrell L. Bennett, 22, of Spanaway, Wash., were killed Saturday in Baghdad. The Department of Defense said they died from an improvised explosive device and small arms fire.

Both were assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division out of Fort Riley, Kan.

Miller, 23, graduated from James W. Mitchell High School in New Port Richey. “It was an honor to be his teacher,” said Mary Turin of Mitchell High School, who oversees the school’s work-study program. “He was a little quiet. Very studious. An A-plus-plus student.”

He was a standout on the Mitchell High wrestling team and did a work-study program as a lifeguard at the YMCA. That is where he met his future fiancee, Tara Nelson, who also was a lifeguard. They’ve been together since they met as teenagers.

“He was perfect,” Nelson, 26, said Wednesday between sobs.

After his high school graduation, Miller earned a degree in biology from the University of South Florida. He planned on going to medical school to become a surgeon. His family said he enlisted in the Army last March to help pay for medical school, and because he believed it was his duty as an American.

Funeral arrangements have not yet been finalized.

“He was a beautiful kid,” his mom, Kim Miller, said today. “We were lucky to have him as long we did.”

-- Erin Sullivan, Times staff writer