From start to finish, a Windham veteran was surprised by every aspect of her Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. earlier this year and describes it “as an experience of a lifetime.”
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| Alola Giffin Morrison of Windham, left, was a recipient of an Honor Flight to Washington, D.C. earlier this year. She served in the United States Public Health Service as a Lieutenant Junior Grade and achieved the rank of Major in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps before retiring. Her son, Mark Morrison of Windham, accompanied his mother on her Honor Flight. COURTESY PHOTO |
After earning dual Bachelor of Science degrees in nutrition and home economics in 1959 from the University of Maine, she completed a one-year dietetic internship at Beth Israel Hospital in Massachusetts, qualifying her to become a registered dietitian in 1960. Later that same year, she became a commissioned officer in the U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) in Boston and was sworn in by her father as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. The USPHS is a uniformed service of the military and is made up of skilled medical and health care professionals.
She married her University of Maine classmate and sweetheart Joe Morrison in November 1961 at Hanscom Air Force Base in Massachusetts and resigned from the Public Health Service in June 1962 to move to Orono, Maine to start her family with the delivery of her first of three children in August 1962. Her husband had accepted a teaching principal position in Glenburn, and she worked weekends at Eastern Maine Medical Center through 1966 as a young mother of three, followed by weekends and nights at St. Joseph's hospital, into the early 1970s. By 1972, she was elected President of the Maine Dietetic Association.
Resuming her military career by re-enlisting in the U.S. Army Reserve Medical Corps (USARMC) as a captain in 1974, she was assigned to the 1125th Medical Unit out of Auburn, Maine and Section 1 in Bangor for 12 years as a registered dietitian. She retired from the USARMC in 1986 having obtained the rank of Major.
Her two-week active-duty assignments while in the Army Reserves included stints at Fort Drum in New York, Sam Houston Medical School in Texas, West Point in New York, Walter Reed Medical Center in Washington, D.C., Fort Devens in Massachusetts and at Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland.
That experience qualified her to be a recipient of an Honor Flight from Maine.
“I was pleased to be able to go,” Morrison said. “I was greatly surprised to see how many people were at the airport in Bangor to see us off. I certainly didn’t expect that.”
Her son, Mark Morrison of Windham, accompanied his mother on the trip and says he is proud of what she has accomplished in life.
“The earnings she received as a Reservist, allowed her to save over several months so she could then open her own private consulting practice as a dietitian,” he said. “As an independent small business medical professional, she was able to contribute more to the family income budget with this move, while having much more control and flexibility with her schedule by setting her own hours with three children at home. Additionally, her Reserve pay was steady and predictable, which further helped the family budget, especially during the early years as her consulting income at first was unpredictable. As a married working mother, this proved to be a huge benefit and the main driver for this professional change. It was all about balancing life's responsibilities as a professional woman and mother. Being a mother first was her priority.
Of everything she got to see and do on her Honor Flight, Alola Morrison said that going to the Women’s Military Memorial was her favorite. She had been there previously, but the tour took her back there again.
“They had me come up front and I wasn’t aware that they had a presentation for me,” she said.
Her military story was officially entered into the Women's Military Memorial. While on her Honor Flight to Washington D.C. from Bangor she had been interviewed and “her official story” by curator Britta Granrud was entered into the memorial's archives. She was one of 77 veterans from Maine and was the only female veteran on this trip.
During her flight to Washington Morrison confided that she was not sure she deserved the honor.
“I was never in combat, and I was never sent out of the country for active duty. I was a Medical Reservist who remained stateside my entire career,” she said.
But she was told because she was one of just a few women who served back in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when it was not common for women to serve in our military. As a Reservist, her contribution was important as she performed duties that full-time active-duty members needed while stationed overseas. She was part of a medical team that was available if ever needed and showed the way for younger women that a military career was possible. She is a role model for the younger women who are considering the military part-time or full-time and that it is possible to have a military career as a woman and as a mom. Young women need to know this, and they do because of stories like hers.
Before leaving Washington, Morrison said she was impressed at how many people, many of them children, came up to her and thanked her for her military service.
“That was really very sweet of them,” she said. “Before I left, I had no idea what to expect. It turned out to be one of the most amazing experiences of my lifetime.”
When her Honor Flight landed back home another special surprise awaited Morrison as her plane was met by a crowd of people that included U.S. Senator Susan Collins, U.S. Representative Chellie Pingree and Maine Gov. Janet Mills.
She’s been a member of American Legion Post 148 for the past seven years and served three years as 2nd Vice Commander at the post. Her husband and one of her sons have passed away, but she remains the mother of Mark and a daughter Cheryl, a grandmother of five and a great-grandmother of three with two more on the way. <
