Warwick officer returns after tour in Afghanistan
WARWICK Until recently Capt. Robert Barnett, the son of Robert and Margaret Barnett of Warwick, commanded an Army battery unit in Afghanistan.
Barnett, who has also served tours in Korea and Iraq, is a graduate of Warwick Valley High School and Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. And he is now back home where he can sit at a restaurant alongside Greenwood Lake, view a picturesque body of water surrounded by mountains and green trees and enjoy a cold beer. American military forces, by the way, are prohibited from drinking alcohol in any war zone.
After spending a short time with his parents and his brother John, Barnett will return to his home post at Fort Sill, Oklahoma. He will then move on to spend 16 months at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center at the Presidio in Monterey, California, where he will study Modern Standard Arabic in preparation for a foreign service assignment to the Middle East.
The Army will later arrange for Barnett to pursue additional studies for a graduate degree.
Last Christmas, while serving in Afghanistan, Barnett contacted Orange County Choppers, a custom and production motorcycle manufacturer based in Orange County. The company is featured on the popular TV show, American Chopper.
I told them I grew up in Orange County, said Barnett. And that I and my first sergeant were putting together stockings for our soldiers for Christmas Eve. We were using green army socks and I asked the Orange County Choppers if they could provide stocking stuffers.
Barnett thought they would send some key chains or stickers but, instead and much to their surprise the Choppers sent high quality T-shirts, of different designs.
When hes not in uniform, Barnett often wears another T-shirt with lettering that reads, Hokies United, a student-driven volunteer effort at his alma mater, Virginia Tech, which was organized to respond to local, national and international tragedies.