OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Nebraska -- After more than 30 years of service, Chief Master Sgt. Michael Morris, former 55th Wing command chief, retired in dock one of the Bennie L. Davis Maintenance Facility Sept. 15.
Morris enlisted in the Air Force in December 1987 from Mobile, Alabama, the town where he had lived his entire life in two houses on the same street. Antsy to see more of the world, he took the job that got him on the road the quickest – fuels specialist.
But he didn’t make it far as his first assignment was Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi.
“I actually swapped for that assignment in technical school,” Morris said. “I had orders to Mildenhall in England. I guess I wanted to get away, but not too far away.”
Less than a year and a half later, when he was finally sure he could do it on his own, he requested orders overseas. He was approved and headed to Ramstein Air Base, Germany.
It was there he met fellow Airman, Carmen Morris, who he has been married to for more than two decades.
“I saw her and I thought she was the cutest thing I had ever seen in my entire life,” Morris said. “For almost two years, we dated, we were an item. At that point in time, I couldn’t have imagined being with anything else.”
They made their first move together to Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, where Morris found out he would have to retrain and chose to become a boom operator, a job that requires a lot of training. It is also where they found out they would be expanding their family.
“We received a joint spouse assignment,” Morris said. “We drove up to Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho and I literally dropped her, my truck and the dog off while she was eight months pregnant, and I headed to training. She started work, bought a house and had a baby by herself. She is a super human being.”
They welcomed a son, Joshua, who will be leaving for the Marine Corps in a few months.
Morris spent the next seventeen years perfecting his craft at Mountain Home, McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, and Altus Air Force Base, Oklahoma, which even granted him the opportunity to be a technical school instructor.
In 2013, his career began to take a new turn and his concentration became less about the job and more about the people. He became a group superintendent at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.
Barely five months later, he interviewed and was chosen to become a command chief at McConnell AFB, which eventually led to his final assignment here at the 55th WG.
Morris said taking care of people has always been his passion, so to have the ability to lead was extremely fulfilling.
“The nicest compliment that I have received recently was being told that I am an Airmen's Airman,” he said. “When you have an opportunity to speak for or make a decision that affects thousands of enlisted members, never forget that you are one of them. I have done my best to serve this way and would hope that anyone wearing chief’s stripes would do the same.”
Morris said his plans after retiring are to find a way to continue to serve and do a ton of fishing. Although, he looks forward to this new chapter, he said there was one thing he would miss the most.
“I will miss what I always miss when I move, the people,” Morris said. “People are what most of my memories are tied to. I don't remember things from a standpoint of what I did. I remember what I did with what person.”
As a key person in the culmination of his career, former 55th WG commander, Col. Marty Reynolds, now Air Force Military Fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY, presided over the event.
“I can’t thank you enough for everything you have done for this wing and all the wings,” he said. “This guy is one of the best leaders I have ever seen in the Air Force and we are going to sorely miss him.”
To those who will follow in his footsteps, Morris said he would like to leave them with these final thoughts.
“Be loyal to yourself and your family, be good at what you do functionally, and if or when you are given the responsibility of leading Airmen, do so as you would want to be led,” he concluded.