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GCU MAGAZ I NE • 23
member of the Fifth Special Forces group, the
Green Beret experienced heat, injuries, blood and
horror — an experience, he said, that profoundly
affected his identity and life after war.
“The war was a topic of every conversation
we had,” Carroll said. “At one point it became
unpleasant, and I knew he had to be troubled
by all of this because he shared with me
stories about the battlefield, death and how
someone had saved his life and carried him
out of the jungle.”
No matter whether they felt proud of their
service or sustained war injuries, the soldiers
often found hatred, not love, when they returned.
Morgan’s fiancée, for example, told him she could
not be seen with a “baby killer.”
Vietnamwas an unpopular war in which more
than 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and more
than 300,000 were wounded. Morgan came out
of it with injuries to his knees, back and neck
because of two awkward landings disembarking
from aircraft — one time parachuting out of a
plane, the other when he jumped off a helicopter
carrying a machine gun and at least 800 rounds
of ammunition.
“It was a war no one believed you could
survive, but I managed to get through it, and then
I resented being tossed into it,” he said.
Morgan left the military in 1972 and moved
back into his parents’ home in Montague, N.J.,
but what he saw, felt and heard in the war took
its toll. As time went on, post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) dominated his life.
“My PTSD was so bad that I once hit my
mother while having a nightmare, and I didn’t
know I’d hit her until the next day when I saw
her at the breakfast table,” Morgan recalled. “I
could kill myself — my mother was a saint. I
was hit by this dismal feeling — not just from
the negativity of the country but my own guilt
— and as these things evolved my dad threw
me out. It was a crazy time.”
Eventually, Morgan sought counseling and
returned to school at Glassboro State College
(now Rowan University) to earn a bachelor’s
degree in Humanistic Psychology and a
master’s in Psychology from GCU. Nearly 42
years after his service, Morgan was awarded
a Silver Star, the third-highest award given
to service men and women for bravery and
courage under fire.
“It was an award he really deserved, and
his response was very humble — ‘I was just
doing my job,’” said Bill Gastmeyer, who first
met Morgan in junior high. “That’s the way he
was in high school — co-captain of the football
team, a good-looking guy that all of the girls
liked, a practical joker, but always humble.”
In many ways, Morgan said, he has been
able to move on quite successfully. But his
larger quest in life is to nurture his faith and to
be a change-maker.
His passion for psychology enabled him to
write “Simple Truth: The Whole Is Greater
than the Sum of Its Parts,” a book discussing
the individual relationship between personality
and performance. He believes the way to help
those with PTSD is by encouraging them to
feel more comfortable with themselves.
At 65, Morgan decided to return to GCU for
his doctorate after retiring in 2012 from the
Michigan Department of Corrections, where
he was a counselor.
“I’ve had a very strained career with one
event after another, but it’s been lively and
full of learning,” Morgan said. “This Ph.D. is
the toughest intellectual thing I’ve ever been
through, but I feel like I am getting a second
wind in life and I am not going to close the
door on these possibilities.
“I am dressed in flesh, but spiritually I am
much more than that — GCU supports that
concept — and I don’t want to run from that.
I want to experience it.”
RalphMorgan sustained many injuries, both
physical and emotional, during his time in
Vietnam (below), but now he's working toward
his doctorate at GCU. Morgan also is a devoted
fan of the Tampa Bay Lightning (left, with
former Lightning star Dave Andreychuk).
“My PTSD was so bad that I once hit my mother while having a nightmare, and I
didn’t know I’d hit her until the next day when I saw her at the breakfast table.”
—RalphMorgan