Last modified Wed., July 18, 2007 - 04:55 PM
Originally created Thursday, July 19, 2007

Hundreds pedal in tribute to officer, friend

Former Navy medicine officer honored with memorial ride

By MC1(SW) Nick De La Cruz, Navy Medicine Support Command Public Affairs

Photos courtesy of Team Navy Jax More than 200 cyclist prepare to ride in the Share the Road Memorial Ride held Sunday in memory of Lt. Cmdr. Jim Warmowski. Warmowski, a member of the Naval Healthcare Support Office, was killed five years ago on U.S. 17, south of Green Cove Springs, Fla. by an impaired driver while training for the Ironman competition in Hawaii.

More than 200 cyclists and friends gathered here July 15 for the fifth anniversary of Share the Road Memorial Ride and ceremony in honor of Lt. Cmdr. James Warmowski.

Warmowski was attached to the now disestablished Naval Healthcare Support Office (HSO) at NAS Jacksonville at the time of his death. An avid cyclist and member of the Navy South Regional Triathlon Team, he was cycling southbound on U.S. Route 17 on July 14, 2002 when he was fatally struck by a motorist who drove onto the shoulder of the road.

Rear Adm. Mark Boensel, commander, Navy Region Southeast, and NAS Jack-sonville Executive Officer Capt. Steven Holmes, along with members from Team Navy Jax, joined the North Florida Bicycle Club for a 14-mile ride from north of here to the accident site for the ceremony

Cyclists from Northeast Florida/Southeast Georgia pedal to the site of the accident on U.S. 17, south of Green Cove Springs, Fla.

honoring Warmowski. Team Navy Jax is an NAS Jacksonville bicycle club.

"I was commanding officer of NAS Jacksonville when Warmowski died," Boensel recalled. "I had the unpleasant duty of letting his command know what happened to him. It was a very, very hard day."

Longtime friend and shipmate Michael Plante, a retired Navy captain and now the facilities director for Navy Medicine Support Command (NMSC), was the guest speaker. NMSC

Participants of the memorial ride are moved to tears as MU3 Shelby Tucci of Navy Band Southeast plays taps.

was stood up in November 2005 as a Navy Medicine echelon-3 flag headquarters command and is located in the former HSO facilities. Some of the HSO staff like Plante who worked with Warmowski are now NMSC staff members.

"For those of you who knew Jim, you know he was a very, very special individual," Plante said.

"He was a highly professional naval officer who commanded respect from those who knew him. The gap in leadership from his loss is still felt even to this day. We lost an officer, a fellow bike rider and I lost a friend - as many of you did, too."

NAS Jax Senior Protestant Chaplain (Lt. Cmdr.) Gregg Gillette also led the participants in prayer while Plante and AW2(AW) Shawn Winn of HS-5 and a member of Team Navy Jax, placed a wreath at the site. The service concluded with cyclists singing American the Beautiful and MU3 Shelby Tucci of Navy Band Southeast playing taps.

Photo by MC1(SW) Nick De La Cruz Retired Navy Capt. Mike Plante, left, and AW2(AW) Shawn Wynn unveil a memorial road marker along U.S. Route 17 South in honor of Lt. Cmdr. James Warmowski. Plante is now a civilian employee at the Navy Medicine Support Command at NAS Jacksonville. Wynn, with HS-5, is a member of Team Navy Jax Bicycle Club and just returned from the Middle East where he served in the war on terrorism. The marker was placed at the site of WarmowskiÕs fatal accident in 2002.