It was October of 1971 and the Vietnam War wasn’t going well. Nearly 187,000 soldiers had been killed and President Richard Nixon had announced that “American troops are now in a defensive position…the offensive activities of search and destroy are now being undertaken by the South Vietnamese.”
Morgan with her mother, Annie M. Morgan, who was honored with flowers by her retiring command, Task Force 168, in Suitland, Md. Oct. 1992. (Courtesy photo)
Meanwhile, on the campus of Texas Southern University 20-year-old Daisy Morgan decided to take a break from her job working with students in the Upward Bound program to accompany a friend to a Houston post office that was also a military recruiting station. Morgan’s friend thought about joining the military to get away from a bad relationship but changed her mind. However, on that day Morgan, who initially moved to Houston to earn a high school diploma in the Job Corp, saw enlisting in the military as a ticket to a new life.
“I noticed the uniform that the Navy recruiter was wearing and I saw a sign that said, ‘See the world,’ and I was sold,” Morgan, who decided that day to enlist in the Navy, told the AFRO. This marked the beginning of a military career that included 20 years of active duty and another 18 years as a Naval ROTC instructor.
“I joined the Navy to see the world but I never thought that I would make history and my picture would be on the wall at the Pentagon,” said Morgan who spent the first eight years assigned to an anti-submarine squadron where she had administrative duties.
“In those days women were prohibited from combat duty so by law we had desk jobs,” said Morgan who volunteered for extra duty by flying with crews on the Navy’s cargo planes.
Morgan got sick while in the Navy with Hoskins Lymphoma and she could have gotten out. Nonetheless, she decided to remain and to re-enlist after eight years in uniform.
“I had two choices,” She said. “They said I could push boots or go to an aircraft carrier because women were just being accepted.”
Morgan decided to re-enlist, becoming the first African American female ever to serve aboard an aircraft carrier, the USS Lexington, the Navy’s last carrier that had a wooden deck.
In July of 1980 Morgan arrived at the pier of the Pensacola, Fl. Naval Air Station and gazed at her new floating home. She was one of about 50 women to go aboard a carrier that trained thousands of naval officers how to land on ship, which was critical to the Navy’s war effort in Vietnam and the Pacific.
“I saw a large grey vessel moored with a lot of male sailors engaged in busy work,” Morgan said. “I was met with resistance coming aboard for the first time… being grilled on the ships terms and procedures while bystanders made negative comments and gestures,” Morgan said.
Despite being in an “all a man’s world” Morgan was uniquely trained for the moment.
“I grew up with 12 brothers and five sisters and we all had the same parents who were God fearing and didn’t play, Morgan said. “My mother, Annie Morgan, was a wonderful role model as a mother and a teacher and my dad, Walter Morgan, was hard working father and provider,” Morgan said.
“My father served as a cook in WW II and he was stationed at the Army Air Corp base in Waco, Texas where my mother was from.”
She said growing up in the north rural Florida town of Mariana Florida, about two hours east of Pensacola, was not easy.
“We picked peas, milked the cows, picked cotton, hoed peanuts and picked blackberries so my mother could bake cobblers,” Morgan said, which prepared her for the toughness required for serving in the armed forces.
During her three years on the Lexington. Morgan was promoted to Petty Officer First Class where she assisted women making the transition from civilian life to working on an aircraft carrier.
“I took a lot of hard knocks,” Morgan said. “Some male sailors were mean spirited and abusive. It varied in verbal, emotional, and physical abuse and I experienced some inappropriate touching.”
Morgan doesn’t say much about the #Me Too movement and how women are pushing back today. But she said in the 1980’s things were much harder and women had few options to protest or talk to anybody.
“I felt a lack of trust for being on the ship with married husbands. None of this abuse set me back, but it made me stronger and more determined to persevere with a forgiving spirit,” Morgan said. “I worked hard to earn respect from all of the men and being assigned to Master-At-Arms forces for my first six months helped.”
“Sea duty and ship living isn’t for everyone but I know God made it all possible,” Morgan said. “I had to adjust to sleeping in small racks… There was no real privacy, constant noise of bells, whistles to awaken us, meal times…” Morgan said.
Morgan got married to an Army Man while stationed in Germany. They had two children and moved to Temple Hills, Maryland.
After her active duty career, Morgan became an ROTC instructor at Northwestern High School in Hyattsville and she remained from 1993 until 2011. Much of that time she taught young people how to wear the uniform, drill, military history and other ceremonial duties. There were also many field trips back to the ships and the Pentagon where a plaque is on the wall with her name.
Morgan retired as a Senior Chief Petty Officer.
Today she has many letters and awards to show for her tenure, and many of the letters are from high school students who called her “a mother,” they could always count on.
She now volunteers at the USO supporting traveling soldiers at Thurgood Marshall BWI and Ronald Reagan National Airport.