Interview with Shaun Morrison, Interview with a Military Veteran, History 150 Spring 2022, Conducted by Parker Morrison, March 11, 2022.

Overview to Social Change Interview: 

September 11th, 2001 was the event that pushed my father to make the decision to enlist in the military. In this interview, he explains how he always felt like he belonged in the army and saw it as a  duty to fight for his country’s freedom. This interview covers a few aspects of social change. My dad talks about how different the country was and how united we all were post 9/11 than we are today. He also talks about how things have changed for people who are veterans assimilating back into civilian life and how his experiences were very difficult/how he was able to adjust.

This interview allows the audience to hear a first hand account of what life was like on a military base, and the challenges of juggling being a father and husband while also being on active duty. This interview also provides a little insight on how things were run on the bases and how living was like while not on active missions. My father talks about his experiences in the Battle of Fallujah and how he was moved to enlist into the Army in the first place.

Biography of Interviewee:

This interview was done with my Dad, Shaun Morrison. Following high school, he pursued an education and continued his football career at Elon University. After realizing that was not the path he would like to take, he enlisted in the Army soon after September 11th, 2001. He realized he wanted to be a part in making a change after this pivotal moment in history. This interview talks about the struggles of balancing a family while being enlisted, touches a little on the active duties he was involved in that includes The Battle of Fallujah, how life was on the base/living around it, and adjusting to everyday life after being in a setting like the military.

In the interview my dad talks about a few things that I feel should be explained, because I did not understand the terms at first. Here is a list to clarify some of these topics:

Home of the Infantry: The Home of the Infantry is located in Fort Bennings, GA. This is where my dad was first sent to complete basic training. It is known as one of the largest military bases on earth.

ETS date: Expiration Term of Service

Saddam Hussein invading Kuwait: This even took place when Iraq invaded Kuwait and took over the oil reserves. This article describes this event in a greater detail if you are interested.

“Iraq Invades Kuwait.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iraq-invades-kuwait.

Helicopter hangar: a closed building structure that was meant for housing aircraft

Kevlar vest and helmets: this gear was often worn to protect the men from bullets by added an extra layer of protection of this high impact material

Army Rankings explained:

Bajza, Stephen. “Army Ranks for Enlisted Personnel.” Military.com, 26 May 2021, https://www.military.com/army/enlisted-ranks.html.

Transcript: 

Parker Morrison  0:01  

Okay, let’s start off with just introducing yourself with your name and your age.

Shaun Morrison  0:07  

Shaun Morrison. 43 years old, I believe today.

Parker Morrison  0:15  

Okay, what were the dates you were active in the army?

Shaun Morrison  0:20  

I went active November 19 of 2001. And my ETS [Expiration Term of Service] date was November 19 2005.

Parker Morrison  0:29  

All right. Did you start preparing for deployment right out of high school?

Shaun Morrison  0:35  

No, I didn’t. I waited until I was 22 years old. September the 11th had taken place. I was actually 21 at that time. And it was the Sunday after September the 11th, which was a Tuesday 2001 that I called the recruiter and left the voicemail on the answering machine. I got a call back the next morning on Monday morning. They told me I needed to come take a test for placement that evening. And if I missed it, it was going to be 30 more days. So I went ahead, took the test. I asked them “Don’t I need to prepare for this. Don’t I need to study for this thing?” They said, “No, I think you’ll be fine.” So I went that evening and I took the test. And November the 19th. I was at Fort Benning, Georgia, Home of the Infantry.

Parker Morrison  1:31  

What would you say motivated you to go through that whole process?

Shaun Morrison  1:38  

When I was in sixth grade, I was at a Timbrook basketball game. And that happened to be the night, right when we started the basketball game, that was the night that Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. And as soon as September the 11th took place I knew we didn’t even know exactly who was responsible at the time. But I knew it had nothing to do with the country of Iraq. But I told your mom, my then girlfriend, who became my wife, we were camping that weekend. I was watching the Apaches in the Blackhawks fly overhead. [these are aircrafts used by the US Military] And I said, You know what? We’re going to go to war with Iraq over this. I just know it. And I want to be part of that. I said, “Will you stick with me if I do that.? And she said, Yes. So we got back home from camping on Sunday. That’s when I called a recruiter. And then the next month we got married. And then two months later, I was at Fort Benning. So I just knew that we were going to go to war with Iraq and that I wanted to be part of it. My dad was in the army, he never went to a combat zone or anything like that and never fought in the war. But he was in the army and just growing up, I just always knew that I was supposed to go if our country went to war, I just always knew my place was there for some reason.

Parker Morrison  3:08  

So since your dad was, you had already had some background knowledge. Did you have any expectations going into the army?

Shaun Morrison  3:18  

Going into basic training- It was so, Fort Benning was a tough place, The Home of the Infantry. They didn’t allow any females there until, you know, several years after I was there at basic training. It was the home of the infantry. And it was the hardest, hardest boot camp that the army offered. And it was so easy. So easy, For me growing up with my dad, it was like growing up in boot camp all the time. Those drill sergeants didn’t have anything on my dad. So, I guess that prepared me pretty well, my expectations were that it was going to be rough. And it was going to be frustrating. But I knew I was fine with that. So he prepared me well for it.

Parker Morrison  4:05  

Do you think he was how he was as a dad because he went through stuff like that?

Shaun Morrison  4:13  

Not necessarily his military service. I know he had a very stressful job. He investigated homicides. A lot of those were obviously rough dealing with families. And when it was a child, it was very tough on him. So I think that’s just how it was. He was strict and that was probably good for my brothers. Not at times. But I don’t think it was necessarily from the military service. I think it was the stress from the job mostly.

Parker Morrison  4:48  

Yeah. So you said that you were motivated after the whole thing happened with 9/11 Would you say, Do you remember how society was before that and how it kind It was after like, how things changed and how people looked at the world kind of

Shaun Morrison  5:06  

Oh, yeah, it was a wake up call. It was a wake up call for everybody. I have never seen one thing I can say after September the 11th, I have never seen. And it’ll, it’ll take another act of aggression. I think, unfortunately, against our country. It’ll take a great loss for our country to unite like that. But after September the 11th, there were no Republicans or no Democrats. There was no black, white people didn’t see that people didn’t see Jewish or Catholic, or it was that we were all Americans. And the rest of the world was behind us, too, because it was such an awful thing. But we all banned together, we all came together as a country, as Americans. And that was, that was nice to see. It made you proud. And we haven’t been like that since- that lasted a very short time, very short time. And then we were as divided as ever, just like we are now more divided than ever, as a nation. But that time, it was such a great loss for everyone. horrible things that happened, horrible so many people died on that day. And then so many more after as a result, but we did come together as a country, and that was nice to see.

Parker Morrison  6:31  

Yeah. Let’s see. Um, I know you were severely injured when you were deployed. Do you want to talk about that and how that happened?

Shaun Morrison  6:49  

Well, not really.

Parker Morrison  6:54  

You don’t have to.

Shaun Morrison  6:55  

It was a very bad day. We were all in a little camp called Camp sites. West of Baghdad, Baghdad and Fallujah. And we got hit just about every day, if you Google Camp sites, in Iraq campsite was the most deadly camp to be on. It was a very small camp, it was only like a little over a mile all the way around it. The Core of Engineers went and bulldozed this area in the middle of a town, there was a helicopter hangar and a couple helicopter hangars there that Saddam had. And that’s what we lived in while we were on Camp, when we weren’t out conducting missions. That’s where we lived. There was a little dining hall. And they knew when to hit us, and that they had for some reason we had workers in the camp and they knew everything about what was going on the day, the daily lives of us on that camp, and we were there. And they had just downgraded the threat level. So we didn’t have to wear our Kevlar vest. We didn’t have to wear Kevlar helmets. And we were all going to dinner in the Chow hall, which they knew exactly where that was. They knew times we went to eat. And we were leaving after eating dinner. A big group of us we’re leaving, walking back to the hangar and the mortars and the rockets started coming in. (Moved onto the next question)

(I asked if his injury was the main reason he decided it was time to be done with the Army, so he continues talking about that here) My year’s deployment had ended. They told us just a month or so before that we were going to be there, we’re going to get extended, and that we were most likely going to be there for another six months. So it would have been 18 months total. But then on Christmas Eve, I was in our shelter, or where we kept our communications equipment. And I got a call on the radio and it said “Hey, start tearing down your equipment. Your replacements are coming. You guys are gonna you guys are gonna go home soon.” So we needed to train those guys up there, they were the National Guard unit that was going to replace us. And we started tearing everything down. But of course I got a call the next day but that was in December, you know Christmas, Christmas Eve. So that’s the rainy season out there and it was very muddy. I got a call like, I told all my guys “Hey, let’s tear this stuff down. We’re gonna go home and our replacements are coming. So just tear everything down and leave up the essentials.” So we tore that stuff down in the pouring down rain and the mud. It was freezing cold, it’s so cold. And then I heard the satellite phone ring again. I went in there and I grabbed it and they said “You guys are gonna be there for a little while longer. Your replacements are stuck in the mud. They’re not gonna be able to get there for a couple of weeks.” It was bad. It was very rainy. And over there, it’s not sand like people think sand is what sand is here. It’s not gritty. It’s not sandy. It’s dirt. It’s fine dust. It’s wet. It’s sloppy. So, we were very depressed then. And then we started setting things back up. And a few days later, replacements came. So I went back home, I had my first surgery at Fort Hood. And it was clear, it was pretty obvious it(his leg) was pretty messed up. I had broken the bone. And I never went and saw anybody I knew I had broken the bone and just taped it up and put ace bandages around it lace my boot up tight and the bone healed back wrong. Very, very incorrectly. I tore my peroneal tendon also. So there’s a lot of blood that was in there from the peroneal tendon tears so a lot of scar tissue built up in there. So I probably could have tried to stay in. But I had just had my daughter I left the day before her first birthday, you. And I didn’t come back until after your second birthday. I wanted to get back home and I realized what was important in life. And I wanted to be home with you. And I didn’t want to go on all these constant deployments, so there were two things. I was ready to get out. I was ready to start life. And get to know my daughter. And then, you know, physically, I don’t know if I would’ve been able to do it for too much longer. So I guess it was just time. Things happen for a reason.

Parker Morrison  12:17  

So one of my questions was How was it like balancing having a family and being active on duty? And also did it change your outlooks? I guess you just answered that. It did.

Shaun Morrison  12:26  

It definitely changes your outlook in life. Things that you think are such a huge deal After you go through that aren’t really as big of a deal as you thought they were

Parker Morrison  12:37  

So did me and mom live on a military base? So when you have a family do, like when you get deployed, do they just come with you? And there’s a base for your families? Or how does that work?

Shaun Morrison  12:50  

Yeah, we actually never lived on the base. We lived outside the post. We had a townhouse and we had a house but we didn’t live on the base. We lived right outside the gates in our first townhome and a couple miles outside the gates when we lived in the house. But, when we first moved down there, yeah, if you’re married and you have a family, you get an allowance for housing, or you can live on the base. We knew we didn’t want to do that. So we took the allowance for housing and rented a townhouse. 

Parker Morrison  13:23  

But the actual hospital was on the base?

Shaun Morrison  13:26  

Oh yeah, the hospital was on the base. That’s where you were born, and that’s where I had my first surgery. Everything that we did pretty well was on the base- all our doctors offices were there, dentist offices. It was pretty self-contained, it’s self-sufficient.

Parker Morrison  13:46  

Do you think that your experiences in the military have shaped you into the person you are today? Why or why not? Or like, does what you’ve been through make you look at things differently that a normal person wouldn’t see.

Shaun Morrison  14:00  

Yeah, I think so. A lot of good ways and a lot of not so good ways. And you always whenever you’re anywhere in public, you look at people differently, definitely would look at the world differently. Most Americans are hated. It seems to me and you know, in most parts of the world we have a lot of enemies and we have blinders on. It seems here a lot of people don’t know that. So it changes the way you think but it positively changed me and helped me prepare me for my career and for managing people. And being a good leader for people taking care of your subordinates, take care of their needs. If you’re a manager, those people and your resources you do the best you can and you take care of the people that worked for you, that are under you. Because they’re your number one asset and you value them and you take care of as many problems as you can for them or what they think are problems, and you try to make their lives better. And I think it definitely helped me a lot, going through primary leadership development courses, and being an NCO and having my soldiers taking care of their needs always like that. I like to help them and it gave me a purpose.

Parker Morrison  15:32  

Yeah, what’s an NCO?

Shaun Morrison  15:34  

A Non-Commissioned Officer.

Parker Morrison  15:37  

Do you have different sorts of roles, when that’s your title, than other people?

Shaun Morrison  15:42  

Yeah, and when you’re a noncommissioned officer, a sergeant rank or above, then you have more responsibility. Your subordinates or you have soldiers assigned to you, they have to obey your orders, their lawful orders. If they don’t, then, you know, it’s breaking the law. And, but I’ve never had to worry about that with any of my guys. I treated them with respect. And they saw that I would do anything that they had to do, I’d already done it myself, as, you know,  as a private as a PFC as a specialist. I’ve done all those things myself, and when I’ve worked shoulder to shoulder with them, and kicking doors with them, even though I didn’t have to, i like being the one kicking the doors, like you went back to taking care of my guys, and I wanted to let them know that I was there with them. We’re gonna do this together, and we’re going to try to get in and out one piece. I was gonna try to get back home.

Parker Morrison  16:44  

Yeah. Um, so in the previous question, you talked about careers and stuff, was it hard joining the workforce and stuff after you got out of the army?

Shaun Morrison  16:56  

It was extremely difficult. There wasn’t, there weren’t a lot of programs. Obviously, I had PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder] pretty badly and a lot, a lot of rough times, a lot of rough times. But fortunately, I had a family to take care of. So you gotta force yourself. You gotta, you just gotta, you just have to do it, you have to toughen up and do it. I didn’t want to lose. If I would have gone to get any help for any of that I would have lost my secret security clearance. And a secret security clearance can mean the difference between making $50,000 to $75,000 a year versus, you know, $150,000 or $200,000 a year if you pursued a career where you needed to use that clearance. If you went to get help, they could take that from you. If you had psychiatric, depending on whatever they diagnosed you with or certain medicines they put you on, then you could lose your secret security clearance.

Parker Morrison  18:03  

Is that how things still are today, or have they changed?

Shaun Morrison  18:06  

I think they’ve gotten a lot better, but I couldn’t tell you exactly how it is now. I think they’ve gotten a lot better. There’s certainly a lot more programs that help people. There’s a lot more support, they understand it a lot more. And it’s not it’s not a black eye to go get some help. I think that you would still have your clearance taken from you. If you’re on certain medications for depression, anxiety, things like that. I think they would still lose it.

Parker Morrison  18:45  

 What do you do as your career right now? And is that what you started with soon after the army? Or did you have to go back to school to be able to join that.

Shaun Morrison  18:58  

I didn’t have to go back to school. I pursued a career in military occupation, which was Network Engineering/ Network Switching Systems have a, well l still had it but it’s probably no good anymore. A Cisco CCNA certification, the Network Switching Systems diploma or degree, SMARTT which stands for a long acronym, it’s SMARTT- It’s secure mobile, anti jamming, reliable, tactical terminal. It’s a certain form of satellite communications that the military used at the time. So I went into network engineering and IT, and I just wanted a technical position. I wanted to just configure switches and design data networks, video networks, things like that. And that’s what I set out to do. But for some reason, immediately I was asked to go into a sales position, and sell the systems. Design them, sell them to customers and things like that, that’s what was so hard for me. Because I was so on guard, and, you know, coming right out of the military coming right out of a combat zone, I had just a few months back home in Texas. And then I was out of the Army, and I had surgery, so I wasn’t, uh, I had those surgeries, I wasn’t really getting any, you know, talking to the guys or getting any help or talking about what had happened or anything. And it was very shortly after the Battle of Fallujah, you know, two months after the Battle of Fallujah, two and a half months I was, we were getting ready to come back home. So we went back home. And then, you know, a lot of the things that some of the other guys participated in, I didn’t do, I didn’t go to some of those, those counseling sessions and things like that, because I was having to, I was recovering from having surgery and recovering from surgery. And then I was out of the army. And then I was right back into the real world, the normal world. So that was difficult, but being thrown into sales with the PTSD. That was super hard for me to be around people and talk in front of groups of people. And, you know, before, before that, I’ve never had a problem talking in front of groups of people, no problem at all. Like, like I am now I can talk in front of rooms of, you know, 1000s of people at trade shows and things. But that was really hard for me, then.

Parker Morrison  21:37  

How would you say you overcame that since you said you didn’t really get help with anything and you kind of dealt with it on your own?

Shaun Morrison  21:45  

I didn’t overcome it myself. I think the answer to it all was being put in a sales position and have it being forced to go out there and do it every day, and being forced and outside of your comfort zone at that time. And I just knew I had to do it. So it got easier as time went on. And, you know, I’m certainly fine now. Just talking in front of people. But I think that’s, I think that kind of saved my life too. You guys, my family. And being forced into that. Because if I would have been just in an office all day by myself with the lights half you know, the lights dim just designing data networks and by myself and not being forced into social situations like that, I don’t know what would have happened to me. I really don’t. So I think being forced, being put into the sales position, and knowing I had to support my family. So I had to do it, I had to make some money. And that was the best option I had at the time. So I just did it. I think I think the career in sales and sales engineering, and then you guys, I think that’s what saved me. And I don’t think I don’t think I would have made it here as long as I would have been allowed to just sit here sitting in an office and just not interact with people. But it helped me a lot.

Parker Morrison  23:21  

How were you put in that sales position?

Shaun Morrison  23:25  

I don’t know. I was, I was just, I was interviewing for that position. Not for that position, but just for a technical position there. And the sales manager came in there and walked by and talked to me for a few minutes. And he did the old, The old sales trick. He took his watch off of his wrist and threw it on the table. He said, “Hey, sell me that watch.” I said, “What do you mean?” He said, “Sell me that watch.” And it was a Luminox watch. A lot of military and US and over in the UK, Luminox watches are military grade watches. Very, very nice. And a lot of the guys use them, a lot of pilots use them. So I just went on a spiel of BS really about the watch. And I gave it back to him and he said and he looked at Tommy, the owner of the company said, hey, that’s that’s my next salesman right there. So from that point on, I was in sales.

Parker Morrison  24:31  

And you still are today?

Shaun Morrison  24:32  

And I still am today. 

Parker Morrison  24:35  

Well, do you have any other things you want to cover that I haven’t asked?

Shaun Morrison  24:41  

No, I don’t think so. 

Parker Morrison  24:42  

Okay, well, that’s all I have. 

Shaun Morrison  24:46  

All right. I love you. 

 

Parker Morrison  24:48  

I love you. Thank you for doing this.

 

Shaun Morrison  24:50  

Alright sweetie, I enjoyed seeing you this week.

 

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Research: 

I chose to research the Battle of Fallujah as my historical context of my interview. My interview does not include much context about this event due to the fact that it was too difficult for my dad to talk about, but I know it played a big role in his life and time of duty. The dates of this event are from April 4th-May 1st, 2004. Four U.S. military contractors were killed and their bodies were publicly burned and beaten. This act revoked and outrage, causing the U.S. to retake the city and 1/3 of this was done within a week. The U.S. forces eventually withdrew and control was turned over to the Fallujah Brigade. This battle brought increased polarization of the public opinion on the war of Iraq, as previously talked about by my father during the interview.

 

Bibliography: 

“Fort Benning, GA.” Fort Benning, GA | History, 2022 Post Housing, Inc, https://www.fortbenninghousing.com/history.

“Iraq Invades Kuwait.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 24 Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/iraq-invades-kuwait.

Bajza, Stephen. “Army Ranks for Enlisted Personnel.” Military.com, 26 May 2021, https://www.military.com/army/enlisted-ranks.html.

Sauvageau-Shlaffer, Hailey. “Modern Navy: A Look into How the Military Has Changed – Social Change Interviews.” WordPress, 10 Apr. 2020, https://sites.lib.jmu.edu/sc-interviews/2020/04/10/modern-navy-a-look-into-how-the-military-has-changed/.

Swift, John. “First Battle of Fallujah”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 28 Mar. 2022, https://www.britannica.com/event/First-Battle-of-Fallujah. Accessed 12 April 2022.

Dowling, M. (2021, March 5). 7 things you didn’t know about the first battle of Fallujah. We Are The Mighty. Retrieved April 12, 2022, from https://www.wearethemighty.com/mighty-history/first-battle-fallujah-operation-vigilant-resolve/

Picture downloaded for free from Unsplash.com, https://unsplash.com/photos/0imZsFe41zM

Conduction: 

This interview was conducted with my Dad over Zoom. It was conducted on March 27th and required no editing.