By John Montesano
The Fox Valley Veterans Breakfast Club named Tom Warner the July Herschel Luckinbill Veteran of the Month.
Tom was born July 7, 1947, in Chicago. At age 10, the family moved to Lockport in Will County, where his father, Richard, was a State Trooper. Tom attended Joliet Catholic High School from which he graduated in June 1965. His father was killed in the line of duty in 1969.By a June 3, 2021 State resolution, the section of Route 53 in front of the Illinois State Police headquarters was renamed to honor, Richard G. Warner. He was a U.S. Navy veteran of the Battle of Okinawa during World War II.
July 30, 1965, Tom joined the U.S. Air Force. He did his basic training at Lackland AFB, Texas, and his Air Munitions Specialist training at Lowry AFB, Colorado. He went to Ogden AFB, Utah, In January 1966 to work with explosives. In 7/66, he deployed to Pleiku AFB, Vietnam. July 1966 he was sent to Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, home of the USAF’s 18th Wing. He was assigned to work on special weapons.
During the 1968 Pueblo crisis, the 18th deployed between January and June to Osan AB, South Korea, following the North Korean seizure of the Pueblo ship. They got there so soon after the seizure, that our military was afraid that the North Koreans were going to come south and attack across the border, so, they made the men get off the cargo planes and stand at the end of the runway to wait for buses to come pick them up while the planes were turned around ready to take off. The men did not have Winter clothes and to keep warm, they would run into the jet blast for as long as they could hold their breaths. After a brief time, when it became apparent that the Pueblo Crisis was not going to result in a war, the 18th Wing returned to Okinawa. February 1969, Tom was sent to Egland AFB, Louisiana, and July 1969, he re-enlisted for four years. He deployed November 1969 to Cam Ranh Bay and Phu Cat Base, Vietnam. At the end of 1970, Tom was sent to Shaw AFB, South Carolina. In February 1971, he went to Indian head, Maryland for Explosive Ordinance Disposal (EOD) school. He was graduated from EOD Tech school in July 1971 and returned to South Carolina. Staff Sgt Tom Warner was honorably discharged July 29, 1973.
Prior to his discharge, Tom was married to Dee April 1973. When Tom was discharged, they moved to Aurora. Dee worked while Tom attended Lewis University for a bachelor’s degree in education and Northern Illinois University for master’s degree in education administration. In 1976, to get a teaching certificate, Tom had to submit copies of his college and high school transcripts. To his surprise, the high school transcript had a stamp across it: “Not recommended for further education” (because his grade average was 70.4). When he earned his master’s degree in 1978, he sent copies of his master’s degree and the stamped transcript to the high school.
From 1976 to 1980, Tom taught at Beaupre Elementary School in Aurora. He had gone from blowing up stuff to teaching elementary school and missed the excitement, which resulted in his working for the Marywood FPD om Aurora, 1974 to 1995.
In 1980, he went to work for Motorola in the service department. Eventually, he was responsible for a territory encompassing Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and most of Illinois. He retired in 2001. Tom and Dee raised two sons and have three grandchildren. They live in Oswego and run a successful home appraisal business.