Chapter Nine*
Final Tribute to
Major James Edward Morton
Statistics and awards are a poor summary of one’s life accomplishments. But not to mention them is unforgivable in this setting. In his eight years as an officer in the US Air Force Ed logged 2932 hours of flight time. Of that 136 were in an F-4 Phantom. He had a total of 146 jet hours and was rated a senior navigator. By the time he had been at DaNang for six weeks he had already completed 43 missions over South Vietnam and 4 over North Vietnam. In his career up to that point he had been awarded six Air Medals: three for classified reconnaissance missions in South Korea and three Air Force Expeditionary Force Medals for the Berlin Airlift and the Congo Airlift. Even though a highly competent navigator in his own right, Eddie would have cherished no accolade more than that of those of the pilots who flew with him in the 366th that considered backseaters as “fighter pilots” and a “Gunfighter”.
With all my years in ministry and after preparing countless funeral and memorial homilies stand me in poor stead for this task. To capture in a few words the spirit, character and sacrifice of a beloved brother’s all too brief thirty-three years is most daunting. In recalling so many memories from childhood what stands out are those times when Eddie embodied such a spirit of adventure, playfulness, and protection. Always ready for a good time, he could shift gears and get serious when circumstances warranted. I remember an instance when we were very young. I must have been about eight and Eddie eleven. Somehow we became entangled in a dispute with some locals at the Treadwell playground during the summer. The dispute escalated to throwing rocks at each other. Not the biggest, fastest or strongest but always at the ready, Eddie took the fight to our opponents, routing them into retreat but sustaining a slight cut to his forehead--to him a badge of honor and courage. I will always remember him in that vein--deftly taking me on my first scout overnight camp out. Still etched in my memory is the smell of the bacon and eggs he cooked over a campfire for our breakfast that weekend at Shelby Forest.
Eddie was never one to engage religion in a conventional way. He tolerated our traditional form of Christianity. His second year at the Academy he spent Easter Sunday (April 1, 1959) on the slopes skiing. His own true religion was as yet unfound. He followed the spiritual guide of our mother whose credo was to seek out your own path to truth. Eddie’s penchant for values and principles followed the more robust of the Boy Scouts and especially the Order of the Arrow and its mythical code based on James Fennimore Coopers’ Last of the Mohicans. The credo of the Order of the Arrow was “the brotherhood of cheerful service” and to be “unselfish in service and devotion to the welfare of others”. It emulated the heroic example of courageous sacrifice of the Lenapi warriors chronicled in Cooper’s epic novel. Perhaps the best statement of Ed’s spiritual and character loyalties were expressed in the Cadet Prayer from the Academy:
Lord God of Hosts, my life is a stewardship in Thy sight. Grant the light of thy wisdom to the path of my cadetship. Instill within me an abiding awareness of my responsibility toward Thee, country and fellow man. I ask true humility that, knowing myself, I may rise above human frailty. I ask courage that I may prove faithful to duty beyond self. I ask unfailing devotion to personal integrity that I may ever remain honorable without compromise.
Make me an effective instrument of Thy peace in the defense of the skies that canopy free nations. Thou hast charted the course of all the heavenly bodies. So guide me daily in each thought, word and deed that I may fulfill Thy will. May these graces abide with me, my loved ones and all who share my country’s trust. Amen.
That prayer comes as close as any to understanding Eddie’s spiritually. I have no worries whatever about his eternal resting-place. Though obviously on the periphery of the community of saints, I believe, he is clearly to be included. He is to be counted among the many dedicated men and women who served in that era and since to protect the “skies that canopy free nations”. As many in the Air Force in that era, his duties covered a wide spectrum—the exacting hazards of Troop Carriers to the far reaches of the globe to the humdrum of surveillance and reconnaissance over the troubled borders of the Koreas. Eventually he was called upon for the fast and furious demands of tactical fighters in Vietnam. It was not exactly the dream he had as a beginning cadet at the Academy ten years earlier. Who of us achieves those pristine dreams unaltered by circumstances? But it was not far off either. There he was, a member of a highly functioning combat team, flying in effect co-pilot in one of the world’s fastest most lethal fighters. And he was doing a noble and good work—much the big brother protecting the younger and more vulnerable. He was absolutely committed to the mission. He was thoroughly competent and respected among his peers. Eddie would have asked for nothing more. He gave his full measure of devotion doing what he always wanted to do and for a cause as noble as is possible to find in this world. And this world is a better place because of the way Eddie spent his span of nearly thirty-three years among us.