American soldiers observe Veterans Day in Afghanistan. (AP photo by
Anja Niedringhaus)
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Ironically, because Morrison was part of an all African-American unit –– with the exception of white commanding officers –– his own shelter in Canada consisted of a “pup tent” that barely insured survival. Being the young soldier that he was, he took it all in military stride.
Among Morrison’s favorite memories from that period is coming upon a bear cub whose mother had died. “We took the bear back to camp and adopted it as a kind of pet,” he says. “It always wanted to hug somebody -- which I didn’t too much care for -- but he wouldn’t leave you alone until you gave him a hug.”
The Canadian Oil Pipeline on which Morrison worked became the first major pipeline in North America, and during the war carried fuel over 600 miles. After serving in Canada for almost a year, Morrison returned with his regiment to the United States.
The Chaos of D-Day
They soon shipped out again. Morrison’s assignment this time took him and the 388th to England, and then France, where they participated in the deadly and crucial Battle of Normandy in France. Morrison was scheduled to arrive on France’s Omaha Beach on June 6, 1944. Although he was spared the bloody chaos of D-Day, his regiment landed several days later while fighting was still in progress and dead bodies floated on the waves.
“I had to walk through the water holding my gun over my head,” he recalls. “On the beach, we had a hundred yards between us and enemy fire. It wasn’t easy but we did what we had to do.”
Morrison jokes that he spent his Christmases in Europe “trying to run and hide. We celebrated as much we could but it was wartime so it was dangerous. Usually we would have C rations out in the field, but on Christmas the whole regiment would get a Christmas dinner with real turkey.”
In 1945, he spent the final months of his military career as a prison camp guard. Ironically, he befriended one German officer prisoner, named Wilhelm, whom he would later get to know under very different circumstances.
After leaving the military with a bronze American Campaign medal commemorating his wartime service, Morrison worked a number of years in Philadelphia and New York City. It was in New York that he re-united with a childhood friend from Savannah named Gladys James. The two married in New York before eventually settling back in Savannah, where he began working as a longshoreman.
Veterans Day 2009 ceremony with President Barack Obama at Arlington Cemetery.
(AP photo by Gerald Herbert)
A Big Christmas Surprise
To his surprise, Morrison was at work one day when he met the former German officer who had been his prisoner during the war. With the conflict long ended, the former prisoner Wilhelm had started making annual trips to Savannah as part of the crew on a cargo ship.
“He came off that ship, walked right up to me and said, ‘How you doing, Pee Wee?’ We got to be good friends,” Morrison remembers.
“I would send him things from Savannah for his wife and family and he would send me things from Germany for my wife and family. I would see him every year around Christmas time ‘cause they’d be bringing in German products for the holidays,” he says. “Then his shipping route got changed and I didn’t see him anymore.”
Morrison remained a longshoreman for 35 years. Reflecting on the 81 years of his life, he notes, “I’ve seen some beautiful things and I’ve seen some ugly things. I’ve lived on the good side of the knife and the bad.” The “good side of the knife” includes childhood memories of families that seemed to him more supportive of one another and their communities than what he sees now. He laments what appears to him as increasing violence, not only between countries but between communities and individuals.
For that reason, he hopes “to see people get together more than they do, and love each other like human beings instead of attacking each other like animals.”
Although Tara Nursing Home administrator James Hardy can’t promise Morrison an end to violence or apathy in the world, he is doing something to acknowledge the veteran’s battle for freedom and peace during World War II. Upon learning that Morrison’s name had not been entered into the National World War II Registry of Veterans, he agreed to submit the appropriate information so that Morrison’s contributions and legacy are not forgotten.
“That’s a small gift to him from us,” says Hardy, an Air Force veteran himself. “After everything he’s done for everybody else, he deserves it.”
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By Aberjhani the National African American Art Examiner and author/co-author of eight books including Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance and ELEMENTAL, The Power of Illuminated Love.
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