Rank: Specialist 5
Unit: Headquarters & Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment
MOS: 67N – Utility Helicopter Repairer
Awards: Silver Star, Bronze Star Medal, Purple Heart Medal, Air Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, National Defense Service Medal, Vietnam Service Medal, Republic of Vietnam Campaign Medal
Unit awards: Vietnamese Gallantry Cross with Palm device
Enlisted by: Regular
Date of birth: 8-Apr-1946
Hometown: Houston, Texas
Marital status: Never Married
Campaign: Vietnam Conflict
Start of tour: 20-Aug-1966
Incident date: 25-Jan-1968
Date of casualty: 25-Jan-1968
Age at death: 21
Cause of death: Hostile, died. Artillery/Mortar/Rocket. Artillery, rocket, or mortar.
Julius William Morris Jr died from fragment wounds received while in Officers Mess, in base camp when hit by hostile anti-tank round.
Location of fatality: Binh Duong, South Vietnam
Place of interment: Earthman Resthaven Cemetery, Houston, Texas, USA
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SILVER STAR
POSTHUMOUS
SPECIALIST FIVE JULIUS WILLIAM MORRIS JR
26 JANUARY 1968
HEADQUARTERS AND HEADQUARTERS TROOP, 1st SQUADRON
11TH ARMORED CAVALRY REGIMENT
Specialist Five Morris distinguished himself by exceptionally valorous actions on 26 January 1968, while serving as a Helicopter Repairman with Headquarters Troop, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment at the base camp at Lai Khe, Vietnam. Specialist Morris was sitting in a jeep outside and officers’ open mess waiting for his passenger when the Viet Cong launched a mortar and rocket attack on the immediate area. Seeing a man blown clear of the building by the initial impact of explosive projectiles, Specialist Morris immediately rushed to his aid and pulled the man to the relative safety of some nearby sandbags. Determining that the officer was only stunned, and insuring that medical aidmen would soon be arriving, Specialist Morris then dashed into the flaming wreckage of the demolished building under continued enemy fire to rescue the many wounded and trapped men inside. As he began to remove one of the first casualties, the building crashed about him. Trapped in the fierce flames, Specialist Morris expired in the performance of an outstanding act of mercy. Specialist Five Morris’ extraordinary heroism in close combat against a Viet Cong force was in keeping with the highest traditions of the military service and reflect great credit upon himself, his unit and the United States Army.
Headquarters, 9th Infantry Division, General Orders No. 2437 (April 14, 1968)