January 5, 2000
Kosovo, not home, for the holidays
David Dzwik part of peacekeeping mission
By Justin Trapp
Herald staff writer
"We're a very close family. When he told us in July he said 'I've got good news and bad news and I said 'give me the bad news first' and he said 'I'm going to Kosovo.' I said 'excuse me?'"
This was the initial reaction from Bernadette Dzwik after her son, David Dzwik, informed her of his six month deployment to struggling Kosovo. The younger Dzwik, a 1995 graduate of Traverse City High School, had enrolled in the Army while a senior, and began serving in July of that year.
His father, David Dzwik, Sr., had served in Vietnam, and said that his son had been interested in the military since he was a child.
"I remember when he was in first grade he had to read books," Bernadette said, "and there was David checking out Army books. He would read them and tell us how these helicopters were made, what year, and he knew all of it in first grade."
But despite the time the younger Dzwik spent away from home while serving, he had always been stateside. Though this was the younger Dzwik's second Christmas away, it was his first outside of the U.S. This holiday season without him, said the family, has been tough.
"He's been calling," the elder Dzwik said. "He has a calling card and when he starts getting low on minutes he calls. Then we pay for more minutes on our credit card."
The younger Dzwik's deployment is a standard six month assignment; he is a peacekeeper with Company B of the Third Battalion 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment. Peacekeeping, says the family, is trying to keep the Serbs and the Ethnic Albanians from blatantly hurting each other.
"When he first got there he wrote us a letter," Bernadette said. "He said it was a culture shock. The people there are very plain; they're very simple. He said the countryside was out of this world. But he said he just had a hard time seeing the hate in those children's eyes at five years old. He wanted them to trust him."
What the younger Dzwik did to warm up the native children was give them candy. He even called his mother, asking her to send him $25 worth of candy to him for the children. After building a relationship with them, the younger Dzwik said that some of the adults began to trust him as well. The turning point for the younger Dzwik was when he attended to a wounded man in a village and ended up treating 25 more.
Despite the patrols, helping children, and checking on unauthorized firearms and other squabbles between the Serbs and Ethnic Albanians, the younger Dzwik still has time to write and call home. He said that the hardest part of being deployed was being away from his family and new wife, Stacy, who is currently residing at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.
The younger Dzwik is currently a corporal, but will be promoted to the rank of sergeant in February. He returns from his deployment in Kosovo in March and to his wife in North Carolina. The Dzwik family plans to see him shortly after his return. In the meantime, they try to keep their spirits up. Like other families whose loved ones are away, the holidays can prove to be a difficult time, not just for the family, but for its absent members as well.
"I always tell him how proud I am of him," Bernadette said. "I tell him 'you're doing a good job.' I also do a lot of praying and a lot of believing."
The family offers this advice for others with loved ones who are serving our country during the holidays.
"Keep in contact with them," the elder Dzwik said. "Show them your support. Write letters, keep in contact, and show them that you're thinking about them. More contact helps the time go by faster."