When you ask a former military kid where they grew up, there is usually a pause, followed by an explanation about why they consider a particular place their home.
For Bill Morgan, home is Texas. He was born there and lived there several times throughout his life. He comes from a long line of military service; his father’s side was all Army, and his mother’s side was all Navy, so it was not shocking to anyone when he, too, eventually joined the military.
Morgan’s dad and his uncle were in the Army at the same time, and although they had different specialties, they were stationed together several times during his childhood, even sharing a house at one point.
“We lived in Lampasas, Texas, all in one big house,” he said. “It was fun. It was my mom and her kids and my aunt and her kids, so it was always a house full. It was fun playing games, things like that.”
Morgan said he did not think too much about joining the military until toward the end of high school when he and a buddy decided to join the Air Force together. However, joining would mean shipping out the week before graduation, and Morgan wanted to walk across the stage. His buddy joined the Air Force and left, and Morgan stayed and ended up working in the West Texas oil fields after high school.
The oil field was booming at the time, and Morgan worked more than 100 hours a week. He got married, and the couple soon welcomed their oldest daughter.
“Then that dry spell came, and they started shutting everything down because it was too expensive to pull oil out of the ground, and it was cheaper just to buy it from another country,” he said. “They started capping all the wells off, and they wanted me to move to a yard in another town because they were shutting down the one in our town.”
Not wanting to move, Morgan decided to find another job. He ended up pumping gas and washing cars for about a year, and then he and his wife decided to join the Army together. They wanted to travel, see the world and have careers together. However, it was 1986, and the recruiter said they could not be a dual military couple because they had a daughter, so Morgan enlisted by himself.
“Well, fast forward to 1998,” he said. “I was actually a recruiter in the Army when the rules changed. I went home, and I told the wife. I was like, “Hey, you still want a better job? That one great job?’”
He said she started getting in shape that night, and a few months later, she enlisted; he re-enlisted the same day.
“So I ended up putting my wife in the Army,” he said with a laugh.
Morgan spent nearly four years as a recruiter, and although he was good at it, he wanted to return to aviation. He was a CH-47 Chinook maintainer and wanted to get back to them.
Morgan's first Army assignment was Camp Humphreys, Korea, and he did three more tours in Korea throughout his career. He spent 21 years on active duty, including deployments to Honduras and Operation Desert Storm, before retiring in 2007.
Shortly after, he accepted a contracting job in Huntsville, Alabama, and became a Department of the Army civilian in 2010. Now a Missile Systems Integrator, Morgan works in sustainment with the AMCOM G-3.
He has four children, three of whom served in the military. The youngest studies forensics investigations in college and wants to work for the FBI upon graduation. Still a maintainer at heart, Morgan enjoys working on cars and tinkering around in the garage. As for his life in the military, he said he would not change a thing, and a little of that old recruiter comes out when he talks about it.
“The military gave me so many opportunities; you can’t even imagine,” he said. “It’s everything in one. You can get your education, you get experience, you get paid, you get to travel, you get to see things, you get adventure, you get camaraderie. The friendships are lifelong; I wouldn't change a thing.”