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Scholarship Fund Honors Sgt. Shawna Morrison

By Pamela Crews

On September 5, 2004, Sgt. Shawna Morrison, my friend and co-worker, was killed outside Baghdad when her barracks was attacked with mortar rounds. She was U.S. casualty number 983. She served with the National Guard's 1544th Transportation Company, based in Paris, Illinois. At the time of their return this February, the 1544th alone had suffered 50% of all the casualties of Illinois National Guard units. Seventy of them were wounded.

I remember being incredulous when I heard Shawna was in the army. She had neither the disposition nor the appearance that I associated with a soldier. She was unbelievably delicate and would cry over things that seemed inconsequential in the grand scheme of things—but she was just as unbelievably strong. She was brave enough to endear herself to a restaurant full of liberals, defending her choice to be in the military at all costs, even when the military was not living up to its part of the bargain, even when some of us attacked her mercilessly for what we thought was misdirected energy and conviction.

She often said that we were all lucky there were people like her who were willing to be soldiers. When she was told of her unit's activation, she faced it with characteristic honesty. Though she was afraid of being killed in action, she told me that it would be an honor to die while protecting our freedoms. It was not until she had been in Iraq—which she would come to call "the litterbox"—that it seemed her conviction might be waning, but this wearing down of spirit only seemed to be the result of living at the most basic level of survival. When your world becomes kill-or-be-killed, it is difficult to hang onto altruism.

When we found out about Shawna's death, those of use who worked with her at Radio Maria almost immediately decided we needed to do something in her name that would resonate with our grief and with our disgust over her death. We established the Shawna Morrison Education Fund in the hope of offering an alternative to a student who was looking at the military as an option for funding his or her secondary education. Lately I have often been asked whether this goal might offend Shawna herself. The truth is that it might.

Shawna was proud of her service, and the service that she willingly signed up for should not be denigrated. She was devoted to her unit and her mission. I didn't know her when she enlisted in the regular army as a junior in high school. I don't know if the recruiter's promise of a fully funded education was the main motivator for her enlisting. I have friends and family who are currently serving. Some of them signed up because the benefits looked great on paper; some of them joined up during the patriotic fervor that followed the attacks of 9/11. While I support those who have chosen that path and respect them for taking on a difficult job, I also believe that there should be no place in a military currently involved in warfare for people who have been lured by the promises of education and career. Shawna was promised training so that she could eventually serve as an intelligence officer. She was promised money for an education that would also further that goal. What she got was training as a truck driver and satellite communications specialist, and encumbered tuition that kept her out of school at the time the 1544th was activated.

By the time I met her, Shawna was beyond frustrated with the military holding up her tuition money. She had already served in the first Gulf War and had willingly signed up for the Guard. She wasn't receiving her tuition money; she was working so much that she had almost no free time; and she was sent out of the country to serve in what is basically the occupation of a foreign country—something I don't believe is the National Guard's purpose. Shortly before her death, a promised furlough was revoked, even after the 1544th had already suffered more mortar attacks than anyone believed they would. Shawna wasn't the only one who was sorely looking forward to that quick trip out of the war zone. I know she was not the only one to find that the military's promises are not always honored.

Those of us who created the fund believe that people who simply want an education or job training should not feel compelled into military service, especially during wartime. Even the principal of Shawna's high school, who advised many teenagers that the army was a good way to pay for college, has reconsidered that position. High-school students especially need to understand that the recruiters who come to their classes with promises of safety and money don't have the power to honor those promises—never have, never will. And, while we need soldiers to serve, we also need to insure that our children are educated and informed before they sign a contract, especially one that will put them in harm's way.

To date, the Shawna Morrison Education Fund has raised roughly $10,000, due in large part to the support of the Champaign-Urbana community. In addition to monetary donations, we are now seeking advisors. We would like to become a nonprofit organization and need an attorney's help. We would also like to hear from anyone who has experience creating and endowing scholarship funds.

If you're interested in donating to our fund in any way, please contact either Pamela Crews (pcrews@shout.net) or Leslie Bettridge (elf6485@hotmail.com), or send checks made out to the Shawna Morrison Education Fund in care of Radio Maria, 119 N. Walnut St., Champaign, IL 61820.