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Township Girl Helps Late Grandfather, WWII Vet, Receive Belated Bronze Star

Finally, recognition for 1944 solider who never got his medal.

John F. Morgan, Jr. didn’t live to be presented with the Bronze Star he earned running behind German lines in Holland in 1944.

But thanks to his granddaughter, Lora Morgan, Morgan Jr. got his Bronze Star posthumously at a ceremony late last month.

“We had to wait for it, and he had to wait for it, so that was one thing we had in common,” said Lora, a junior at who lives in Mount Tabor.

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Two years ago when cleaning her grandmother’s file cabinet Lora found a 1944 letter from the chief of staff of the 101st Airborne Division recommending a Bronze Star Medal for her grandfather, who had passed away in 1992 at the age of 71.

Lora’s curiosity was piqued. She found out that her grandfather, who enlisted in 1943 and fought in the 101st Airborne Division Signal Company, never received his medal.

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The probable reason, said Lora’s father, Richard Morgan, John F. Morgan, Jr.’s son, is that a month after writing the letter, the chief of staff was killed at the Battle of the Bulge.

“You could say the paperwork never got properly submitted,” Morgan said. “By the time they checked it out, the colonol was dead.”

Morgan Jr. was recommended for the Bronze Star Medal because he was part of a dozen-man team that reconnected a communication line in enemy territory in Holland.

The Germans cut a part of the 101st Airborne division off from the division’s headquarters when they barraged the Americans. Morgan and his team, on a mission called “Operation Market Garden,” went behind the enemy’s line, reconnected the wires, and made it out alive.

“He had to go through, sneak around, reconnect the communication line and get back in one piece,” Morgan said. “They thought that was a meritorious endeavor.”

A few months after the mission, Morgan Jr. was too sick with jaundice to continue fighting, and he was sent to a military hospital. While there, he was nominated for the Bronze Star. He inquired about his medal while he was in the hospital, Morgan said, but military personnel informed him that they wouldn’t be able to get the award.

Lora Morgan remembers her grandfather mentioning that he asked about the Bronze Star Medal while in the hospital because it would’ve entitled him to come home sooner. He ended up coming home in 1945, having served in Belgium, France and Germany.

Back home, Morgan Jr. never spoke much about his experiences in World War II. For instance, Morgan said that all his father had to say about the Battle of the Bulge was that he and his comrades were, “very cold and very hungry and they almost lost.” He was similarly vague in the letters he wrote home to his mother, which Lora read as part of her research.

“I think the reason he didn’t get descriptive is he didn’t want to scare her,” Lora said. “He was like, ‘Yeah, I was there and I came home.’ That kind of clued me in.”

Lora learned that the way for her grandfather to get his Bronze Star Medal was for her to contact a member of congress. She reached out to Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen and when her family met with the congressman, they gave over the evidence showing her grandfather deserved his medal.

“When I learned that he had never received his Bronze Star, I was proud to intervene with the Secretary of the Army to ensure that his family received the award,” said Rep. Frelinghuysen.

In October they learned that finally, Morgan Jr. would get his Bronze Star Medal.

“It was a big thing,” Lora said.

The family had hoped that Morgan Jr.’s wife, Mary Morgan, could be at the presentation ceremony, but she passed away in January after a long battle with dementia. Instead Edward Morgan took the medal, which was presented to him by Brigadier General Jonathan A. Maddux at a ceremony at the Franciscan Oaks Health Center at St. Clare’s Hospital in Denville.

“He is truly an American hero,” Gen. Maddux said. “This particular ceremony and those like it are important because they recognize and thank our deceased veterans for their service and keep their memories alive.”

Morgan said he quickly passed the medal on to Lora.

“My daughter really earned it,” he said.

The story didn’t end there. Morgan said he became very concerned about the other men in his father’s unit who were also nominated for the Bronze Star Medal and over the past month he has contacted the families of several of the men and one elderly gentleman who actually served alongside Morgan Jr.

“That was amazing to talk to somebody who was literally in my father’s company,” Morgan said. “Somebody who was there with him.”

Lora said she is hoping to help organize a reunion of the veterans and their families. She is now taking a military history class and along with her father and other family members, she is planning to take a trip to Bastogne, Normandy and England, retracing the steps her father took in WWII.

“This is the icing on the cake,” Morgan said. “It’ll have a lot more meaning going over there and seeing where he’s been.”

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