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When Tech. Sgt. Jody Johnson, formerly of Soldotna, was 12, she dreamed of playing baseball for the Boston Red Sox.

"I think it's because my mom was such a fan," Johnson said of her mother, Sandra Goodwin of Soldotna.

Johnson, 34, lives in Philadelphia now, and doesn't play professional baseball for at least one obvious reason, though she admits even playing club softball in her neighborhood she's no slugger.

Next week however, she'll fulfill another dream from her childhood.

"For me, it's been my dream since I was 12 to sing in the World Series since I would never be able to play," she said.

Johnson is scheduled to sing "God Bless America" in front of tens of thousands of fans and millions of TV viewers during the seventh inning of game four of the 2009 World Series.

This isn't the first time Johnson's sung in a world series, though.

She technically fulfilled her dream last fall when the Philadelphia Phillies played the Tampa Bay Rays for the 2008 series and Johnson sang God Bless America during one of the games.

Johnson has performed 10 times at Citizens Bank Park, the Phillies home turf, usually for holidays and events recognizing military service men and women.

Johnson's major league performances are rooted in her past, growing up in Soldotna.

"I was so scrawny and small, and I was a giant geek," she said of herself as a child. "I was too scared to order a pizza in a restaurant but I could sing anywhere."

Johnson said she didn't start to sing seriously until she got to junior high.

There, her choir teacher at then Soldotna Junior High, Dave Schmidt, identified her talent and pushed her to develop her voice.

She said Schmidt encouraged her to do auditions, solos and perform in small groups.

"I didn't even realize he was doing this and it built my confidence," she said.

Later, she said she managed to take 14 semesters of choir with the Soldotna High School music teacher at the time, Gary Lindman.

"I don't know how I managed to do it," she said. "But I still graduated."

"She was very steady," Lindman said. "She wasn't always an outstanding student, but music was kind of her thing and I always knew she had potential."

Lindman said he still remembered Johnson singing the National Anthem at Soldotna High football games.

He recalled one time where she started singing before he'd made it out on the field to join her and she went off an octave too high.

"She sang the whole thing so high I thought the windshields in the parking lot were going to break around me," he said, laughing. "She still did a great job."

Johnson graduated from Soldotna High in 1993.

Years would go by and Johnson would have to capitalize on another dream of hers before she'd ever trod the grass and red earth of a professional baseball stadium though.

In 2003, she enlisted in the Air Force.

"I always wanted to be in the military," she said. "My dad had served before I was born, and I followed after a lot of the things he wanted to do."

Johnson now works with a medical group for the Air Force, mostly doing paperwork while she's stateside and as a medic when she's in the field.

When she first enlisted she said she offered to perform at military services, but never heard anything.

Then in 2007 she got a call asking if she would sing the National Anthem at a Phillies game on Memorial Day.

"I didn't even hesitate," she said.

She laughed, as she recounted how confused the person on the other end of the line was, expecting Johnson to need some time to decide.

A few days later she found herself walking out across a professional baseball field while 45,000 fans looked on.

"It was the first time I'd ever been to a professional baseball game," she said. "They walked me straight out of the basement onto the field and I'm standing in the dirt thinking holy cow, I've never even seen a baseball stadium, and here I am."

After she performed, she walked back under the crowds and received her first review.

"They asked me to come back in a week and sing 'God Bless America,'" she said.

Without hesitation, she did.

Since then she's always sung God Bless America, though her friends will sometimes ask why she doesn't sing the anthem.

"Most people aren't even in their seats yet for the anthem," she said. "For 'God Bless America', everyone's in their seats and they all sing with you. It's a little bit of a way of supporting the troops and it's very patriotic."

She even admitted to having become a Phillies fan.

"I park in the lot with a big fat Red Sox sticker on my car," she said. "Now I'm teased, how I can sing for the Phillies and support the sox?"

As though she needs justification, she said she's made the Phillies her National League team, though the sox still hold a special place in her heart.

Johnson said she doesn't get the butterflies, even when she knows how many eyes are going to be on her.

"My biggest fear is that I don't trip on my heels," she said, laughing. "Walking on the grass in heels I'm thinking, where are my combat boots when I need them?"

Once she starts singing all her fears disappear, though.

"I'm more scared when I get up to bat with my softball team than when I get up to sing because it's my comfort zone," she said.

"I don't know how she does it," Goodwin said of her daughter. "I certainly couldn't do it."

Lindman said he's not surprised, and remembers Johnson as being totally unafraid.

"She didn't show a lot of fear when she sang," he said. "Sometimes afterwards she'd say, 'I was so scared,' but she never showed it. Its obvious that she must carry that on now."

Dante Petri can be reached at dante.petri@peninsulaclarion.com