Army vet Joe Morgan Sr. inspired to join groups, serve other vets

ST. CHARLES – U.S. Army veteran Joe Morgan Sr. came home on Aug. 31, 1967, after serving a year in Vietnam.

Morgan turned 79 on Oct. 1, but he didn’t join a single veterans group until he was 51 years old.

“I was pretty bitter when I came home,” said Morgan, of St. Charles.

“The VFW was a block from my house [in Chicago]. The VFW said it was a conflict, not a war, and theirs was declared war by the president,” Morgan said. “It was terrible back then. There were no jobs and nobody liked us. The media said we were dope smoking baby killers.”

That’s all changed now.

Morgan recently was elected commander of the St. Charles American Legion Post 342. He is adjutant of AmVets Post 501, which also is in St. Charles, and is a former board member for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 5035 in St. Charles. He is vice president of the Vietnam Veterans of America Post 693, serving Kane and DuPage counties.

He went to school on the GI Bill and studied business and accounting administration.

Morgan and his wife moved to St. Charles and he went to work at Fermilab as a purchasing administrator. He became the senior procurement administrator, working at Fermi for 45 years and retiring four years ago.

U.S. Air Force veteran Gary Leonard, who was the general counsel for Fermilab before retiring and moving to Florida, is the one who got Morgan to join a veterans group.

“He asked me to meet him and have doughnuts and coffee and meet some of the guys at the St. Charles Veterans Center,” Morgan said. “I brought jelly doughnuts from Harner’s, usually strawberry or blueberry – they’re the best,” Leonard said of Harner’s Bakery in North Aurora.

“Gary said, ‘You got to get over that bitterness, ’ ” Morgan said.

Morgan now visits veterans at the memory care unit at Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital.

He does poppy fundraisers for Vietnam veterans. They have their own remembrance poppy separate from the red poppies that are a symbol of sacrifice dating to World War I.

When they worked together at Fermilab, Leonard recalled Morgan being “always willing to mentor younger purchasing agents.”

Leonard, still a member of the same veterans groups as Morgan, said his friend “just needed a little push” to join those groups.

“Joe is a tireless advocate for veterans,” Leonard said. “He has personally spent countless hours organizing Veterans Day events. He has also spent countless hours organizing and helping to administer the St. Charles American Legion.”