A Veterans Day Classic: Not Fading Away (Part 1)

November 11, 9:29 PMAfrican-American Art ExaminerAberjhani

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President Barack Obama among U.S. Veterans at Arlington. (AP photo
by Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Editorial Note: This story was originally published in Connect Savannah, September 5, 2007.

The 2005 holiday season was very different from what 81-year-old John J. Morrison, a retired longshoreman, experienced the previous year.

Although he enjoyed Thanksgiving Day at home with his family, he spent Christmas and the bulk of the holiday season with what might be called his new adopted family at the Tara Nursing Home in Thunderbolt just next to Savannah, Georgia.

The plan had actually been for Morrison to go home for Christmas as well. However, when his 78-year-old wife Gladys suffered a fractured hip and was rushed to the hospital on Christmas Eve, those plans were canceled.

The adjustment Morrison had to make from the privileges of living independently to residing in a nursing facility is one that more and more Americans have to make every year. Advances in healthcare and more active lifestyles have allowed many of the country’s nearly 37 million senior citizens to maintain independence by receiving assistance in private residencies. However, the American Health Care Association estimates that some 45 percent of those 65 and older will likely spend extended periods of time -- anywhere from three months to five years or more -- in a nursing care facility.

The Holidays and the Blues

Even in a year without the depressing super-catastrophes of tsunamis, hurricanes and war that marked 2005, residents in nursing homes can find themselves giving in to the blues rather than celebrating cheerfully during special occasions.

As the resident director of social services at Tara, Sue Gahagan is charged with insuring the “psychosocial well-being” of the home’s residents, family members, and staff. Both she and James Hardy, the facility’s administrator, acknowledge that the change from independence to dependence can prove very challenging.

Residents receive some relief from those challenges with increased visits from family members and friends, the exchange of gifts, special meals, and other activities.  However, says Gahagan, “It’s important to remember that our residents are here throughout the year and can always benefit from positive interaction with the community.”

While such interaction allows residents to remain connected to the larger community, Gahagan notes that it also allows members of the community to benefit from learning the stories of the residents’ lives. “That’s probably the part of my job that, if it isn’t at the top of what I enjoy most, it’s very near the top, and that’s sharing people’s stories. They have a lot to teach us,” she says.

A Soldier Named John Morrison

In the case of John Morrison, he does indeed have a lot to teach. Few would assume so watching him maneuver his way down the corridors of the Tara, steering his wheelchair with one hand and balancing a cup of ice cream with the other.

Born in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 11, 1924, Morrison grew up in Savannah, Philadelphia, and New York City. Ask about his life as a teenager in the late 1930s and one receives the startling answer that Morrison joined the U.S. Army at the age of 15! By the time he was 25, he had participated in at least two major American World War II military operations in two very different parts of the world.

As a member of the all African-American 388th Battalion/Engineer General Service Regiment, Morrison was among those who provided critical support for the construction of the Alaska-Canada (or Alcan) Highway.  Considered one of the great engineering feats of modern history, the highway stretches 1,619 miles. It was built in less than a year by seven U.S. Army regiments consisting of approximately 10,607 engineers, or soldiers, total.

At a cost of $110 million, the finished product included some 133 bridges. The highway runs from Canada’s Dawson Creek to just outside Fairbanks, Alaska, at Delta Junction.

“We were all over Canada, building roads and transporting fuel,” says Morrison, who drove jeeps, trucks, and other vehicles to transport supplies and personnel.

As a transportation specialist, he was true to his regiment’s motto: “Hic Et ubique,” which means “Here and Everywhere.”

During that time of his life, he was nicknamed “Pee Wee.” Morrison’s role in building the highway was as a member of the team that constructed the Canadian Oil Pipeline, which provided fuel for the massive operation as well as for U.S. bases in Alaska.

Previously, the fuel had been brought in by ship across the Pacific. However, Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and its invasion of the Aleutian Islands off the Alaskan coast on June 3, 1942, convinced the U.S. to secure an oil source that would not be vulnerable to enemy attack. The government found that source in the oil fields of Canada’s Northwestern Territories.

“The soldiers in my regiment could do all kinds of things,” says Morrison, or Pee Wee. “They built houses, hospitals, schools, stores, whatever was needed.”

Listening to Morrison speak, it sounds simple. But building the facilities he describes also entailed clearing miles of untamed wilderness, creating pathways where none existed.

Next: A Veterans Day Classic Not Fading Away Part 2

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.