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Awaiting his safe return

A naval reservist and Pinellas County deputy is in Kuwait, serving his second tour since the Sept. 11 terror attacks.

By ROBIN STEIN
Published March 5, 2007

TARPON SPRINGS - It was a Saturday afternoon, a little after 2 p.m., when Laura Kolnicki answered the phone to hear a neighbor ask, "Do you know where your daughter is?"

"What do you mean?" Kolnicki said slowly, turning to look out the window. "She's out in the driveway doing crafts with her friends."

No, the neighbor said. Courtney, 9, and her posse were going door-to-door collecting money.

Laura snapped up her keys. Within a few minutes, she found the girls.

"Get in the car," she said. "What do you think you're doing?"

Courtney broke into sobs, clutching a box covered in multi-colored construction paper. On top, a slit was cut out and a message carefully printed:

HELP ME BRING MY DADDY HOME

The $157 inside was evidence that Courtney wasn't the only person anxious for Peter Kolnicki to return home from the Persian Gulf.

He's now been gone for six months.

* * *

Since September, Kolnicki has spent most of his time aboard a 34-foot SeaArk tactical vessel patrolling the Kuwaiti coast for signs of terrorists.

The previous six years, the 41-year-old Pinellas County sheriff's deputy patrolled the halls of Tarpon Springs High School. This is the second time Kolnicki, a Naval Reserve officer, has been called for duty since Sept. 11. It will probably not be the last, Kolnicki wrote in an instant message exchange on Friday.

The Internet, which he can access from Camp Liberty in Kuwait, has been key to keeping in touch with his family, friends and friends from Tarpon Springs High.

It also provides a window into his routine.

He works as a watch officer with the Naval Coastal Warfare Group, based out of San Diego. Kolnicki was a last minute fill-in for an officer who was not "mobilization ready."

So far, the unit has not engaged in combat, which he said is precisely the point. Their mission is to deter the enemy from trying to slip into busy Kuwaiti ports, choked with fishermen, speed boats, jet skis and "a LOT of oil tankers."

Fifteen hours a day, Kolnicki is on the deck of a 10-ton vessel, staffing a weapon station or keeping the tactical communications systems operational.

If he's not to tired after duty, he peels off 50 pounds of gear and goes for a jog or works out. Otherwise, he heads straight for grub.

When the unit is up north, Kolnicki said they get by on MREs, the military's meals-ready-to-eat. He has his own improvised version of chili mac.

"I take the cheese spread for the crackers and hot sauce and mix it in the chili mac bag," he explained.

Back in camp, he said the food is bountiful and quite good - prepared by third-country nationals from India and the Philippines. On the menu Thursday night: meat lasagna and a big salad.

After meals, he retreats to a blue metal building where lockers and hanging blankets section off sleeping quarters for 30 men. Bathrooms and showers are outside - about one and a half football fields away, he said.

Kolnicki's personal 6-foot cube - called a "hooch" - is filled with photos of Laura, Courtney and his 4-year-old son, Matthew.

It is there, as he drifts off to sleep, that Kolnicki said he misses them the most.

* * *

At Tarpon Springs High School on Friday, Laura Kolnicki stands in Ms. Vargas classroom, a visitor pass stuck to her "Hard Rock Cafe, Kuwait" T-shirt. Vaguely waiting, gripping a digital camera, she gazes and squints at a giant banner for her husband:

GONE BUT NOT FORGOTTEN!

The fourth period class ambles in and circles round. Picking a color, a spot, a sentiment, they filled in the gaps of white between day-glo scribblings, swirling doodles, poems and confetti hearts.

"Come back safe!" Jennifer Ho, a sophomore, writes beside three Chinese characters and a spiky self-portrait.

"definatele not forgotten!!" reads a misspelled note that continues, "None of use could ever repay you for all you do. ... All we can say is thank you."

Another message strikes a decidedly distinct tenor: "The real moment of success is not the moment apparent to the crowd. - George Bernard Shaw"

Then there is the more effusive: "I freaking love you."

Vargas suspects that came from a member of her fourth-period class.

Laura Kolnicki laughs, and says she's not jealous. It's nice just to be with people who care for her husband, too.

But she also points out that she has put on 20 pounds since her husband's deployed. Single parenthood is stressful; juggling a home and two young children, exhausting.

Her husband said he may be home some time this summer. But the family time could be limited.

He is expecting to return to the Middle East by early 2008, for his third tour of duty.

[Last modified March 4, 2007, 21:29:19]