photo by Jeff Harbin, Life of Riley Photography

The Steadfast Sergeant

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Note: This interview occurred on March 12th when Sgt. Vance Morris was on a 15-day leave in Amarillo following six months in Iraq. He is set to redeploy in late summer 2010.

When Sgt. Vance Morris graduated from Randall High School in 1999, he admits he had little ambition. He enrolled in West Texas A&M University with an interest in computers, but soon dropped out. He re-enrolled, then withdrew again, and that pattern repeated itself a handful of times over the next five years.

Then, something clicked.

“I had a friend who enlisted in the Army and came back from basic training in shape and very focused,” says Sgt. Morris, 29. “I knew then that’s what I needed to do.”

To enlist in the military meant to leave college again, at least temporarily. With the support of his parents and a new-found drive, Sgt. Morris signed up to join the United States Army in January 2005 as a Signal Support System Specialist and soon reported to his first duty station in South Korea.

There he met his sweetheart, Sulmi. The two married and relocated to Ft. Sill, Oklahoma, in 2006. When his four years of active duty were completed in 2009, the two immediately moved back to Amarillo so Sgt. Morris could enroll in the spring semester at WTAMU. School was smooth sailing and he’d just begun the summer semester when he got a phone call from his mother. A package had arrived with his name on it.

“I knew what it was,” says Sgt. Morris, looking at Sulmi.

“I cried,” she says quietly.

“It was shocking and we were disappointed,” says Sgt. Morris. “It was tough.”

The package included the details of his deployment to Iraq with the Florida National Guard. He was scheduled to leave in August just as the summer semester ended and after already registering for fall. In the ten years he’d been chiseling away at a bachelor’s degree, Sgt. Morris finally became a junior.

Leaving for Iraq was as emotional and complicated as anyone would expect it to be. Though Sulmi would have the comfort and companionship of her husband’s parents, who live in Canyon, she would essentially be alone in a relatively new city, in a country where she’s lived for barely three years.

By August, Sgt. Morris reported to northern Iraq, an area that has remained rather safe and mostly low-key. As a Signal Support System Specialist, he’s responsible for keeping communications equipment in working order and providing technical support, but after finding little to do during down time, Sgt. Morris decided to focus on the one thing that’s been nagging him for years.

“I talked to my advisor, Harry Haiduk, before I left and he and another professor agreed to work with me, that they’d make concessions for a non-online class that I could do online,” he says.

Despite his deployment, Sgt. Morris managed to complete one online course towards his Computer Science major and Calculus I through correspondence. His direct chain of command allowed him to leave work early to take scheduled tests and even proctored a number of exams for him. It was a joint effort between the WTAMU faculty and the 631st Maintenance Company to see Sgt. Morris continue with school.

Naturally, the “college experience” for Sgt. Morris no longer applies. There are no parties, no late-night study sessions, no Greek life, no hanging out on campus between classes or grabbing notes from a classmate because you happened to oversleep. None of that matters to him anyway.

“I just blew it off for so long, we want to start a family and I need the degree for what I want to do,” he says. “I have another two years of school ahead of me. I just want to finish.”

He is, in fact, involved in the Computer Club, albeit from a distance. He’s already been tagged to chair the club upon his redeployment stateside at the end of summer. Sgt. Morris is scheduled to return to Amarillo in time to start the fall semester.

In the meantime, Sulmi takes English as a Second Language at Amarillo College and looks forward to whenever she can webcam with her husband. Skype gives them an opportunity to physically see each other, distance and time change notwithstanding.

Upon his redeployment and obtaining that coveted degree, Sgt. Morris hopes to find a civil service job with the government in computer science, a career that would undoubtedly take him out of Amarillo. There’s even the lingering idea of moving back to Korea.

“Dropping out again just isn’t an option. I know what doors will open for me with the degree,” he says. “I need it but I also want it.”

by Jennie Treadway-Miller

Jennie was a columnist for the Chattanooga Times Free Press for eight years prior to moving to Amarillo in 2008. She is an avid reader, runner and writer.