Chris Morton

Chris Morton Army Interview

Bennett Rudge: [00:00:00] My name is Bennett Rudge, and I am working on Brady Kondek's Eagle Project. What is your name?

Chris Morton: [00:00:05] My name is Chris Morton.

Bennett Rudge: [00:00:08] What is or was your role in the military? Rank/responsibility.

Chris Morton: [00:00:14] Okay. So I ultimately retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel. I served for almost 21 years as an aviation officer, and I was an Apache helicopter pilot.

Weston Rudge: [00:00:27] When and why did you join the military?

Chris Morton: [00:00:30] I joined, so I went to West Point. So I entered West Point in June or July; it was either June or the beginning of July in 1996 and went through West Point for four years and then graduated. And I was commissioned a second lieutenant on the 27th of May in 2000. So that kind of lays out the timeline. Why did I join the military? You know, I think as a young high school man, when I was when I was thinking about what I wanted to do, I wasn't totally sure. I don't think anybody really is ever completely sure at that time. But I knew that I wanted to do something that was bigger than myself. I wanted to help others, and I wanted to serve in some way. And at the time, joining the military made a lot of sense. You know, my dad was in the Army. He actually retired from the Army after 26 years. So that was really influential on my time. And so I always had military service kind of in the background and I wasn't totally sure. And then at some point in high school, I decided that I thought the best way to do that was to serve in the Army. So I applied to the Air Force Academy and West Point and ultimately decided to go to West Point. At the time I thought I was going to be a doctor, I actually wanted to be a physician. That's why I chose West Point over the Air Force Academy, because at the time, West Point commissioned more officers to go to medical school in the Air Force Academy did. But in my third or fourth year, I changed my mind and decided to become an aviation officer and a pilot in the Army. So that's kind of why I decided to join the military.

Bennett Rudge: [00:02:12] How are you associated with Cumberland County? 

Chris Morton: [00:02:14] Yeah, so I moved to Cumberland County in the summer of 2016, so about six years ago. The reason is my last assignment in the Army was to run the ROTC program at Shippensburg University. So the ROTC program is a program where it's four years of academic instruction, military instruction and physical instruction, where college students learn to become army officers and ultimately they graduate out of the university as a second lieutenant. And so my role was to run the military science department and the ROTC program at Shippensburg University. And so my wife and I moved here because it's close to Shippensburg. But we we wanted to kind of be in this area because it's kind of a beautiful area and there's a lot of military connections here. And so we moved here to Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, and when I retired from the Army, we decided to stay right here. We really, really love it here.

Bennett Rudge: [00:03:13] Have you served in any wars and conflicts?

Chris Morton: [00:03:15] Yep, I sure have. When I was a young lieutenant on my second duty station, I deployed to Iraq for OIF one in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. I was in the 101st Airborne Air Assault Division. So I was in Iraq for approximately nine months on that very first deployment. It was the, I wasn't there for the actual invasion of Iraq. I was one of the very first people to get there after the invasion concluded, but served the rest of my time there in OIF one flying Apache helicopters as a scout platoon leader. And I had four Apache helicopters and the associated 16 pilots that I was responsible for in the organization. And then after that, I served again in Iraq. I deployed to Iraq again. And it was actually on September 30th of 2006. That was a 15 month deployment from September of 2006 to the December of 2007, again to Iraq. It was called OIF 0608 at the time. They define the operation by the years, the kind of periods of time. So 2006 to 2008, even though I left at the end of 2007, 15 month deployment. And I was in Baghdad. I had two different jobs. One, I was in charge of operations and a tactical operations center in Baghdad, running Apache helicopter missions throughout the city. And then partway through that deployment, about halfway, I took over as a company commander. So I was attack helicopter company commander, had eight Apache helicopters and the pilots maintainers assigned to fly and operate those Apache helicopters. We provided reconnaissance and security operations over the city for American forces, and then a third deployment. This time in 2014, I went to Afghanistan, was deployed to a place called VA. Initially, I had two jobs there. I ran another operations center, a really big one this time, though, in charge. So I kind of ran current operations for all of the helicopter operations in what was called regional command east in Afghanistan. So kind of the eastern part of Afghanistan. And then halfway through, I moved to become a task force executive officer for Task Force Attack. But it was a battalion that consisted of Apaches, Blackhawks and Kiowa and Chinooks. And so we were at FOB Fengtai, which is near a town in eastern Afghanistan called Jalalabad. So that whole deployment was about nine months and redeployed from there. So those are the three combat deployments that I've had in the crew.

Bennett Rudge: [00:06:04] What are some of your favorite memories?

Chris Morton: [00:06:06] So I do remember my favorite, absolute favorite memory. One of the things that they did at Fort Campbell that was really cool was when you came back from a deployment, they you kind of marched into a hangar and they had the families, your wife and kids or husbands and cousins, whoever wanted to come, they were there at the hangar to welcome home, you know, their loved ones from a deployment. I had a really cool experience because when I deployed the very first time as a lieutenant in OIF, I had a chaplain that was like that was part of our unit. And on this deployment, that was an OIF one in 2003. On this deployment, that same chaplain was also in my unit again in 2014. And so I got to sit next to him on the plane ride back because we just thought it was cool to sit next to each other because we knew each other in our very first deployment. And then I knew he was in my same unit on what I thought was probably going to be my last deployment because I knew I would go to another assignment and retire as a lieutenant colonel. So it was kind of cool, but we marched in to the hangar and it was just a really, really cool event to be welcomed home. And my wife and two boys were there waiting for me at the hangar and they have a whole ceremony. So it was just a really, really cool experience to come home after that deployment and see my see my family again after that.

Weston Rudge: [00:07:39] What is one piece of advice you would give to the younger generations?

Chris Morton: [00:07:42] Yeah. So I actually had, because I taught at a university, I basically help teach and educate young college students who are going to become a resource. So I doled out probably way too much advice that very few of them remember. But I think if I was to give one piece of advice, regardless of whether you intend to do military service or whether you don't, you know, maybe you go into another service organization. You know, I think there's really two things I would say is find a way to help others, regardless of what that is. You know, whether that's military service, whether that's volunteering at your church, you know, as a member of the Boy Scouts, you guys do a ton of great work. I know, I was in the Boy Scouts as well. You help a lot of people, I think, fundamentally find a way to help others, regardless of what that is or what capacity to figure out what that looks like and help other people. The second thing I think I would tell people in a younger generation and I would tell you, too, I mean, you're part of that younger generation is do something hard, whatever that is. It doesn't have to be physical. It doesn't have to necessarily be academic, but always try to find to do something that is hard. Right. I don't know if you guys ever find yourself in the gym for athletics, but the reason that you go to the gym to lift weights just so you tear your muscles so they get bigger, the only way they grow is if you tear them down a little bit. Doing something hard is really, in my opinion, the key to growth, whether that's, you know, academically in school, whether that's physically and what you do with athletics, maybe, you know, maybe you find something else that's really difficult for you, understand that you're going to fail sometimes, but that's okay. And that's part of growth. I think if you can find a way as you grow and as you decide what path you're going to take to find a way to serve others and find a way to do something really hard, I think you'll find that it would be really rewarding and I think it'll make you a better person.

Bennett Rudge: [00:09:47] Is there anything else you'd like to share?

Chris Morton: [00:09:51] You know, I think, you know, I've, you know, I taught in college. And so, like I said, I used to share a lot with my students. But I just wanted to say that I was always amazed at how they were willing at such a young age to say that they were willing to sacrifice for others. It is sort of humbling to be amongst people that are willing to do that. I think that's really the secret sauce is finding a way to be able, like I said, to serve others, but especially in military service. I mean, when I joined the Army, when I went to West Point, there wasn't a war, right? There was no Iraqi freedom. There was no war in the Middle East, you know. So I joined with a different lens. But I remember my very first year when I was teaching at Shippensburg, I was just amazed at these young women and men who decided to serve in spite of what they knew was going on in Iraq and Afghanistan. I thought it was super courageous and I was just sort of amazed at the things that they were willing to do and they signed up for in spite of knowing what was happening over there. So I would just I would just say that, you know, every chance that I get, I thank people for what they do for others, I thank people for what they did to serve. Because I think not only is it important for them to be able to be strong when others necessarily can't serve. But I also think it's really important because I think military service in many ways is foundational to our democracy. And I think it's really important that that we continue to have young women and men who are willing to serve, to be able to sort of keep our democracy alive in the way that it is for them. That's all I would say.

Bennett Rudge: [00:11:46] Thank you so much for your time.

Chris Morton: [00:11:47] Yeah, man. Thanks for interviewing me. I really appreciate it guys.