18 January 2024
WICHITA, Kan. (KSNW) — Joe Warren was a 19-year-old freshman at Kansas State University on Sept. 11, 2001. Following the attacks of 9/11, tens of thousands of National Guard members mobilized into federal service to provide security at home and to combat terrorism abroad.
Within weeks, Warren, inspired by the work of the Guard, enlisted.
“I remember that morning (9/11), watching those towers fall and not knowing really how to feel or what to do next. But it was really in the weeks that followed, I was really impressed by the way that the National Guard steps up and really helps and cleans up disasters and takes care of strangers. They really helped set the nation right,” Warren said.
So. Warren met with a recruiter.
“And he told me about all the things I could do and still be in college in the National Guard. And so, I was part of a simultaneous membership program where I was drilling on the weekends and going to school during the week,” he said.
Courtesy: Joe Warren
His first stateside deployment was to aid the victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
“I was attached to the 635th armor for that deployment, and a large part of our mission was to travel to the Superdome and bring food and clothing and necessary items to the refugees of the disaster,” Warren said. “One of the most eye-opening realities of that deployment was how quickly things can get devastated to an extreme. I remember we were driving the wrong way down a six-lane highway in a Humvee. It was just a complete ghost town. And then we go down into the towns and see refrigerators that were marked with large Xs, indicating they contained a dead body.”
Courtesy: Joe Warren
That deployment lasted six months. Warren returned home and graduated from college in 2006.
“When I got back from New Orleans in 2006, we were made aware that at that point in the war on terror in Iraq, nearly 90% of the National Guard of Kansas had been activated for a tour of duty, and I still had as of yet to receive that letter. So I knew that it was coming,” he said.
Courtesy: Joe Warren
Warren did receive the call in the spring of 2007. He was deployed with the 35th MPS out of Topeka.
“When our mission assignment came out, we were told that we’d be deploying to a forward operating base in Umm Qasr, Iraq, known as Camp Bucca. At that time, in the Iraqi war, there was over 20,000 detainees that were housed at Camp Bucca,” Warren explained. “Some of them obvious and violent terrorists. Others, just people that were in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
That deployment lasted about nine months.
Warren returned to Kansas in May of 2008. Soon after that, he went into business with his father in Derby.
Courtesy: Joe Warren
“So, I started a building company with my dad in 2009 called Warren Homes LLC,” he said.
His management style was influenced by what he learned in the National Guard.
“You know, one of the most beneficial experiences in the Army is that it’s not just one man. You have great soldiers. You have smart guys. And then you have guys that are just hard workers, you know. But all the way through, it’s because of the way that things were organized that units operate well,” Warren said.
That culture has carried over to his new title as owner and CEO of Quality Granite.
“You learn to operate. You learn that you can survive things that you thought maybe you wouldn’t even imagine how, and it’s because of experiences like that that I’m now more comfortable taking risks. I see opportunities and even the notion of failure as something worthy of embracing,” Warren said.
Courtesy: Joe Warren
Warren rose to the level of specialist before he was honorably discharged in 2009. He and his wife, Ann, have three boys and live in Derby.
If you want to nominate a veteran for our Veteran Salute, email KSN reporter Jason Lamb at [email protected].