One soldier’s view of serving in Kosovo Serviceman corresponded with 5th-grade class in Spotswood

One soldier’s view
of serving in Kosovo
Serviceman corresponded
with 5th-grade class
in Spotswood

BRIAN PIECH Kosovo veteran Michael Warnock poses with Sister Juanita, his son, Michael Jr., and teachers Barbara Schmidt and Dori Boyce after his welcome home pizza party at Immaculate Conception School, Spotswood.

SPOTSWOOD — Teacher Barbara Schmidt’s fifth-grade class got an unusual thank you from the soldier they corresponded with while he served in Kosovo.

Equipment operator Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Warnock of the Naval Reserve Construction Battalion thanked the fifth-grade class at Immaculate Conception School by providing them with a pizza lunch on Nov. 16. He corresponded with the class, of which his son is a member, regularly during his seven-month tour of duty.

Warnock left for Kosovo on March 7 and returned on Oct. 1. During his time there, he was the project supervisor for the Construction Battalion, better known as the Seabees. His job was to operate tank cranes, bulldozers and other heavy machinery, in addition to supervising the Seabees’ efforts.

They were responsible for building an 18-kilometer access road around Gnjilane, which they called "Ring Road." The road was necessary because the streets of Gnjilane are too narrow to accommodate supply trucks or tanks. The road allowed them to transport supplies from Camp Bondstel to Camp Monteith, where the Seabees are stationed.

JERRY WOLKOWITZ Samantha Berdoff, 9, fourth grade, exhales during an exercise to determine lung capacity at a Great American Smokeout program Thursday at Frost School in East Brunswick.

In addition to building Ring Road, the battalion hauled heavy explosives for the Navy’s special operations team known as the SEALS, removed trucks that the Serbs used to stage ambushes, and participated in Operation Crush. This operation destroyed captured Serb weapons.

The Seabees used an M-88 tank recovery crane to crush the trucks before hauling them away from the mine fields. While working, Warnock detonated an anti-personnel mine accidentally when he drove over it in a bulldozer. Fortunately he was not injured.

Warnock feels intervention in Kosovo is justified.

"To see a mass grave filled with women and children and then to wonder why we’re there — that’s why we’re there," he said. He was heartbroken to see children crippled by Serbian mines, as well as other acts of brutality.

One girl whom he befriended lost the use of one eye when a Serbian soldier kicked her in the head. The soldier was angry because the girl’s mother resisted being raped. Naval medics cared for the girl, but were unable to save the eye. They hope to get her a glass eye soon.

Warnock said Kosovo was a difficult assignment. In addition to being separated from his son, Michael, he was required to work seven days a week. Every night from 11:30 p.m. until sunrise his sleep was disturbed by the blasts of illumination artillery rounds. Illumination rounds are used to give light rather than to attack an enemy, but make plenty of noise.

"My time in Kosovo made me realize how important my son is to me. Nothing could ever be that important," said Warnock.

For his service in Kosovo, Michael Warnock received the Battle E Medal, which is given for being the best in one’s specialty. He was also given the Armed Forces Service Medal, the Navy Marine Corps Overseas Service Medal, the Mobilization Medal, the Sea Service Deployment Medal, the NATO Medal and the Kosovo Campaign Medal.

Since returning, Warnock has joined the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Toms River, of which his father is also a member.