By Lisa Buie, Times Staff Writer
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
David “D.J.” Jernigan, 22, served a year in Iraq, where, as a specialist, he made maps of the places where troops were doing missions.
DADE CITY — David "D.J." Jernigan was three weeks away from getting out of the Army. The 22-year-old had served in Iraq and was eager to come home to his wife and two daughters.
"He wanted to go to school and find a better job," said his wife, Samatha, 22. "He always wanted to have a family and to take care of them."
Instead, he died after a car accident on a Hawaii freeway.
Honolulu police said Jernigan was driving southbound at 10:50 p.m. Sept. 27 when his car struck a barrier. He then jumped out of his car and into the path of northbound traffic. An oncoming car hit him. The woman driving the other car suffered minor injuries.
It was unclear why Jernigan jumped out of his car.
His wife described him as an outgoing man with a sense of humor. It was that personality trait that attracted her to him when she ran into him at the Pasco County Fair in 2005 after they had dated briefly a few years earlier.
"He was goofy," she said. "He did anything to make people laugh, including tripping himself sometimes."
He was known to family members as Bonez because he was so thin.
"Everyone in his family was over 300 pounds, and here he was 110 pounds, and it just stuck with him," Samatha said.
That November, four days after Jernigan turned 18, they got married. A month later, they found out they were expecting their first child, Lena, now 4.
Jernigan earned his diploma from Moore-Mickens Education Center. To better support his family, he joined the Army.
He served a year in Iraq, where, as a specialist, he made maps of the places where troops were doing missions. In 2009, he was sent to Hawaii.
Samatha and Lena followed him. The couple had a second daughter, Sara Lynn, now 20 months old.
"When he came home from Iraq, he spent every day with me and the kids," she said.
Jernigan loved to soup up cars. His latest project was a 2001 Chevy Cobalt. He also enjoyed playing Oblivion on his Xbox 360, with his daughters by his side.
He was awarded the Army Commendation Medal, the Army Good Conduct Medal, the National Defense Service Medal, the Iraqi Campaign Medal with Campaign Star, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal and the Army Service Ribbon, said Maj. Jeff Parker, a spokesman for the Army.
Samatha and the girls had returned to Florida in March and expected Jernigan home when his enlistment ended.
Today he will get a soldier's farewell as members of the Greater Dade City Chamber of Commerce, with flags in hand, line the street before the graveside service at 11:30 a.m. at Floral Memory Gardens in Dade City.