| Summary: | CDR Morrison (Jim) was born in Geneva New York in 1922. His father, his mentor, was a veteran of the WW I Signal Corps. Growing up he was introduced to legendary fliers Frank Hawkes, Wiley Post and Roscoe Turner. He went for a ride with Amelia Earhart in his Dad’s lap when he was six years old. He followed all of the Byrd expeditions of the 1920s and 30s in the newspapers and movies. He was able to watch Byrd’s Giant Snow Cruiser drive through Schenectady, NY in 1935 on the way to Antarctica. Jim joined the navy in 1940 and trained as an Aviation Mechanic. He was assigned to fly Catalina amphibious aircraft. He had a number of combat flying assignments during World War II including the Battles of Midway, Santa Cruz Islands, Guadalcanal, and Solomon Islands. Later he was invalided in a US navy Hospital with what turned out to be a lingering case of malaria. After the war Jim had a variety of assignments, which included a tour of duty at Ohio State as a student and teacher of naval aviation with the Naval Science Department. He participated during the Korean War from aircraft carriers Roosevelt, Midway, Kearsarge and Tarawa and in 1954 was assigned to an aviation unit aboard the USS Tarawa evacuating refugees that were fleeing French Indo-China (later called Viet Nam) after the French were defeated at Dien Bien Phu. Jim was commissioned as a Limited Duty Officer (Aviation) in 1957. Shortly afterward he met CDR Edward Ward, who had been first Commanding Officer of VX-6, the Navy’s Antarctic flying squadron. He recommended Jim for Antarctic duty. And after some negotiation with the Bureau of personnel he was assigned to VX-6 to “winter-over” in an aviation maintenance billet. Enroute to report to VX-6 Jim was invited to visit Lockheed’s Marietta, Georgia facilities where they were manufacturing ski-equipped C-130 aircraft for the US Air Force for use in the Arctic. He received a very thorough briefing by USAF and Lockheed staff while there. Jim reported to VX-6 shortly afterward and reported what he had learned at ...
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