Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

23, of Bradenton, Florida.

Schmidt died in Baghdad, Iraq, when a vehicle approached his unit and the driver detonated a bomb. He was assigned to 4th Battalion, 27th Field Artillery Regiment, 1st Armored Division, Baumholder, Germany. Died on April 29, 2004.

Justin Schmidt was born in 1980 at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., and grew up in Bradenton, Fla. He joined the Army in February 2002. He is survived by his parents, Victor Schmidt and Lenore Roberts

Justin Schmidt attended Daughtrey Elementary before going to Harllee Middle School. He went on to attend Bayshore High School, where he was a member of Junior ROTC during ninth and 10th grades, according to Junior ROTC instructor Col. Larry Burnette. He later transferred to Manatee High where he graduated in 1998.

“You just stop and think: He was just walking through these halls not too long ago,” said Harlee Principal Guy Davis, who was a dean at the school when Schmidt was a student there from 1993 to 1995. “This morning we made the announcement, then we had a moment of silence and played Taps,” Davis said.

The school plans to display a plaque honoring Schmidt at the school. It will be placed beside another memorial plaque, that of Marine Pfc. Christopher Cobb, another Harllee alumnus, who died serving in Iraq on April 6, 2004.

Schmidt is buried at Arlington.

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