 Babunski fought with the Serbian Army during the First Balkan War and was wounded in a skirmish with Ottoman Turkish forces in the village of Strevica while serving under commander Vojin Popović. During the Second Balkan War, he fought with a Serbian volunteer detachment at the Battle of Bregalnica. With the outbreak of World War I Babunski formed the Sava Chetnik detachment, which was then placed under the command of Major Vojislav Tankosić. The unit went on to fight the Austro-Hungarians in the late summer of 1914 and later destroyed a railway bridge on the Sava River to prevent Austro-Hungarian forces from crossing it. In 1915, Babunski and his men returned to Macedonia and fought Bulgarian guerillas. That autumn Babunski and his Chetniks were assigned to the town of Kačanik, where they joined other Serbian forces in fighting a Bulgarian division that they managed to hold to a standstill for nearly a month despite suffering heavy losses. With the Serbian army's retreat through Albania that winter, Babunski and his men withdrew to the Greek island of Corfu. They then joined Serb forces at the Salonika Front. Here, Babunski was assigned to the Serbian First Army and was involved in guarding Lake Prespa from the Bulgarians. Later, he and his Chetnik detachments participated in capturing enemy soldiers and gathering intelligence from the front. In 1917, French General Louis Franchet d'Espèrey awarded Babunski a medal following the capture of two German midget submarines and their crews by him and his men. Babunski was also a recipient of the Order of the Star of Karađorđe.
