PRT Sailor earns CMAP promotion

KUNAR PROVINCE, AFGHANISTAN

01.29.2010

Story by Capt. Tony Wickman 

Combined Joint Task Force - 82 PAO

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KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan — Going home is the sweetest part of a deployment, but going home with an unexpected combat promotion may be even sweeter. That is what one Kunar Provincial Reconstruction Team member will soon experience after being surprised with the announcement, Jan. 28.

Aviation Structural Mechanic 3rd Class Leigh R. Warrick, a native of Clifton Springs, N.Y., earned the rare promotion for his outstanding support to the PRT while under austere conditions, and at times, hostile fire. He competed for two quarterly quotas against all eligible U.S. Naval Forces Central Command Sailors for a Combat Meritorious Advancement Program promotion to the grade of E-5.

"This promotion means a lot to me. I'm very appreciative that my supervisors took the time to do the package. It's not something they had to do, but I'm happy they did," said Warrick, a 2005 graduate of Midlakes High School. "I'm (pleased) they recognize that I try to work hard and go the extra step. This makes every day fulfilling."

While PRT members packed the Camp Wright dining facility to accomplish the first in a series of required redeployment training, most didn't know that one of their shipmates was about to go home with a new stripe. One who did know was Information Systems Technician Senior Chief Petty Officer Tima McKinney, PRT communications department head, who nominated Warrick and got the initial good news via e-mail.

"I was in the middle of a telephone briefing when the e-mail popped up with the announcement. I literally ran out of the briefing and down the hallway jumping up and down," said McKinney, a native of Portsmouth, Ohio, and resident of Virginia Beach, Va. "I was so excited because he is so deserving...he earned it."

Warrick said his job at the PRT is to make sure all the trucks and troops can communicate while on the forward operating base or while on mission. It's a far cry from the work he spent his career doing.

"I'm an aviation structural mechanic that works on the hydraulics of the F/A-18 (Hornet), and being here on the PRT is completely different. I had to learn new systems and radios and be open to see and do new things," Warrick said. "This is well outside of my normal job, but it is exciting and I enjoy troubleshooting problems on anything and everything."

It was that "can-do" attitude that got him recognized.

"You can ask him to do anything and he does it. It doesn't matter if you want him to be a dismount, or a driver, or run communications on the truck, or do force protection on the mail truck, or take (communication security) to the observation post. No matter what you asked him to do he did it with an attitude that said, 'hey yeah this is great,'" McKinney said. "He always has a positive outlook on everything he does. He just has that demeanor about him that is exciting. He is deserving of the promotion."

McKinney said Warrick goes beyond the next step in making sure communications works, and if he can't fix it, he finds the person who can.

"Even if he can't personally get it done, he'll go to the person who can accomplish it. There is nothing you ask him to do that he turns down, and there is nobody he will turn away," McKinney said. "We service anyone who darkens our door or a truck that rolls in. It doesn't matter, he takes care of them."

McKinney said Warrick's thoroughness showed he was already doing the work exceeding a second class petty officer and that was why he was chosen for the promotion.

Warrick was cited for providing outstanding communication support to the PRT, as well as tenant units and maneuver elements on FOB Wright, while regularly volunteering to be a Mine Resistant-Ambush Protected vehicle driver and dismounted security patrol member. He even pulled base defense when the FOB came under enemy fire.

Warrick was humbled by the promotion, and encourages his fellow Sailors to do whatever is asked for them to find success too.

"I feel honored for being recognized for the job I do on a daily basis. I'd tell other Sailors to be open and willing to learn anything that isn't in your line of work," Warrick said. "Don't hesitate to go that extra step."

The newest second class petty officer in the PRT said this deployment is all he thought it would be and more, but he is glad to go back to his aviation structural mechanic job.

"I'm looking forward to getting back to what I was taught to begin with back in the aviation world. I'm looking forward to the next step in learning a new system and a new job and being able to go the extra step in that," he said.

"My time here at PRT Kunar was everything I hoped it would be. I volunteered to come on this (individual augmentee) mission and I'm satisfied with it."

The CMAP program allows commanders to recognize outstanding performance by Sailors in a combat environment. The CMAP program provides commanders the opportunity to advance junior enlisted Sailors who display uncommon valor and extraordinary leadership while engaged in, or in direct support of, combat operations.

The first promotions under CMAP were in 2005.