John W. Morris
Mr. Goldberg, the personnel officer, and I were driving back from Atlanta to Savannah one
afternoon. When we got to Macon, Georgia, a tornado came through. It was a very serious
tornado, and we could see this thing coming and where it went with a deluge of rain. We just
missed it by minutes, we were that close. In fact, we even slowed down because we could see the
damage that we had to go through.
I remember trying to quit smoking in Savannah, which I didn't do. Mostly I remember driving
everywhere. We spent hours in an automobile going to these various bases. I can still remember
Rosemary Clooney singing "Hey, There." They played that song about every 20 minutes on the
radio.
In Savannah the concerns I had had in Europe on what I was going to do were diminished because
I liked the Corps of Engineers' district work, both military and civil. I then decided I'd like to be
a district engineer some day. In early summer 1953, Frances Hambrick, the district engineer's
secretary, an outstanding individual, not only in her work but also as a very nice person, read each
Army regulation that came through as part of her job. One day she read a regulation that said
something to the effect that a major if recommended by a general officer could be promoted to
lieutenant colonel. She took that order to Wilhoyt, thinking it applied to Major Morris. He agreed
and recommended me to General Holle who okayed it. His deputy-a colonel whose name I don't
recall-was not in favor because he felt I was not old enough to become a lieutenant colonel,
hadn't had enough experience, I suppose. Well, that may have been true, but I had many
classmates who were lieutenant colonels already.
Colonel Ellis E. Wilhoyt, District Engineer of the Savannah District, promoted Major Morris to
lieutenant colonel in August 1953.
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