LOYAL. LOCAL. COMPLETE.
Edgar County and the surrounding areas were brought to tears on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2004, when the headline of the Paris Beacon News declared “Two 1544th soldiers killed in base attack.”
The unexpected story detailed the announcement of Paris High School graduate Sergeant Shawna Marie Morrison’s death just two days earlier during a mortar attack in Iraq. Shrapnel from the attack hit Morrison in the head and she quickly died on Sept. 5, 2004.
Charles Lamb, a 23-year-old Casey native who served next to Morrison, perished in the same attack and several other soldiers were wounded.
Word of the attack, and Morrison’s passing, was delivered to her parents at their home in Paris Sunday evening by a Springfield officer. As news of the tragedy spread, condolences and memories poured in from classmates, friends, family members and strangers who had been touched by Morrison’s life during her 26 years.
At Paris High School, where Morrison’s younger brother was a senior, a moment of silence began the day. A teacher recalled the moment as “very, very quiet and solemn.” Students demonstrated their emotions with tears and feelings of numbness. Infinite sadness and grief were experienced, the teacher recalled.
“It was as if our protective balloon had burst,” the teacher said.
Specialist Stephanie Jones took the news especially hard. She and Specialist Abby Hollis spoke with reporters shortly after hearing the news; their grief was transparent and overwhelming.
“It is hard when one of our own is killed,” Hollis, a Paris resident at that time, said. “It is such a loss and as a unit, we feel like a family member has been taken away from us.”
Hollis described Morrison as an exceptional listener, someone who was easy to confide in and was always understanding.
James shared that she and Morrison were bunkmates and that in her eyes Morrison was “a wonderful person and a dedicated soldier.”
James and Morrison shared personal experiences and talked about their respective families and lives during their leisure hours. According to James, Morrison was a big coffee drinker and one of her most prized possessions was a mug with her brother’s face on it.
“She was so proud of him,” James recalled. “She talked about (her brother) a lot.”
James told a reporter in the midst of her grief that “there is a job that needs done.”
“We can’t let it (our grief) consume us … we have to carry out our mission,” she said.
Morrison joined the National Guard her senior year at Paris High School, in 1996. The role of serving her country is something she always wanted to do.
Her father, Rick Morrison, described the passionate guardsman, who was known for wearing her heart on her sleeve, as a “super” person with a bubbly personality whom everyone wanted to be around.
She joined the National Guard out of a sense of duty and a desire to do whatever she could. In December of 2003, she was deployed with the Paris-based 1544th as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
“The 1544th is housed here. This is their home base, so this has been the kind of news we have been dreading since they left,” Mayor Craig Smith said when he first heard the news. “You hear about the mortar attacks, you hear about the suicide bombers and you keep thinking ‘Is it going to happen to our kids?’ Now, it has.”
Tributes, mementos and words of wisdom poured in from across the county as plans for Morrison’s funeral were made. At the time, signs honoring and supporting troops, including those in the 1544th, decorated much of downtown Paris. Additional signs honoring Morrison began promptly popping up all over Paris, as well as American flags and small memorials with flowers and teddy bears.
A sign outside of the McDonalds where Morrison’s mother worked read “In memory of Shawna. You will be missed.”
Don Furry, a local convenience store owner who employed Morrison before her deployment, previously said that her unexpected death “makes us all pay attention.”
“Obviously everybody is sad,” he said. “Shawna certainly knew going in that there was always a chance that she could be killed.”
Morrison’s death was the first female death for the Illinois Army National Guard. At the time of her death, the 1544th death toll was only four. Twenty-six soldiers had also been wounded since the 2003 deployment.
“This is the largest number of casualties the Illinois Army National Guard has experienced since the Global War on Terrorism began,” Brigadier General Randall Thomas said during a special press conference addressing the attack on Sept. 8, 2004. “Receiving news of the death of an Illinois Guardsman is always hard to accept. That loss of these Illinois citizen soldiers, coupled with so many injured from one unit is especially difficult.”
The National Guard’s official report on the Sept. 5 base attack detailed a series of mortar attacks that struck Log Base Seitz, the 1544th Base on the outskirts of Baghdad, at 6 p.m. It was never made clear where the unit was or what they were doing in the logistical base when the mortar attacks began.
Morrison’s funeral was planned for Tuesday, Sept. 14, following her hometown’s somber observance of Patriot Day on Saturday, Sept. 11.
The day of observation included a moment of silence honoring Morrison and her fellow soldiers in the 1544th. Mayor Smith unveiled a plaque from the city of Paris to the Morrison family, recognizing the sacrifice and service performed by the guardsman. The plaque would be the first of many memorials created for Morrison.
For several days following the funeral, area schools and local organizations recognized moments of silence, and flags across the county were officially lowered to half-mast.
On Sept. 14, just before noon, the streets of Paris were lined to honor the fallen soldier as her casket moved from the United Methodist Church to her final resting place, in Edgar Cemetery.
“The sound of bagpipes filled the air and the streets of Paris were lined with school children and others from the community who paid final tribute to a fallen hero shortly before noon today,” the opening paragraph of The Paris Beacon News’ feature story read that evening.
The community, which had spent nearly 10 days grieving, gathered together to salute “one of their own” that Tuesday.
Morrison’s childhood pastor Rev. Kevin Huddleston spoke, sharing fond memories of Morrison and her family. He described her as “one who loved to help people and gave thoughtful advice.”
“(She is) one of the rare people who made a profound impact on the lives of those she touched. Her vision of life reminds us all to live wisely and make the most of every opportunity,” he said. “Regardless of politics or opinions about war, today we stand in the presence of honor, duty, love and sacrifice.”
Huddleston directed mourners to remember that the funeral service was neither “the beginning nor the end of Shawna’s impact on this world.”
Huddleston’s words remain true today.
“Shawna wanted to help, she wanted to serve. She wanted to honor her country and she did. She continues to do that still,” Erin Hutchison, a close family friend of Morrison, explained in a recent interview with a Prairie Press reporter.
Hutchison, alongside her mother and her sister, sang at Morrison’s funeral. Today, the executive director at The Rec Center in Paris recalls the moment as “one of the hardest things I’ve ever done, but also one of the most honored things that I was ever asked to do.”
“I remember the street was lined with people standing on the sidewalks all the way from the square on down to the Catholic Church,” Hutchison recalled. “(They were) all paying respects to her life and service. It was incredibly moving and heartwrenching.”
“It’s crazy, but the impact of her death has brought the community together. It brought people to want to serve and get involved,” Hutchison said. “Her life had purpose, it absolutely did … She was a hero.”
In her role at The Rec Center, Hutchison continues to ensure that her friend’s legacy is remembered with an annual 5K race.
“The Honeybee 5K was renamed almost immediately in her honor,” Hutchison explained. “She was a runner. We all knew that; we all remember her running.”
Today, the Shawna Morrison 5K Race features support from the local VFW, the American Legion, members of the 1544th and the Army National Guard every year. The event opens with tributes to the fallen soldier, flags and a singing of the National Anthem.
“It’s absolutely much more than a race,” Hutchison said. “(People) may be here to run the race for a bajillion reasons, but everybody’s here under something that we all take for granted, and that’s freedom, and that Shawna was part of that process.”
In addition to the annual race, Morrison is also honored with several scholarships.
“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,” Pamela Crews wrote in an article honoring her late friend. “Though she was afraid of being killed in action, she told me that it would be an honor to die while protecting our freedoms … When your world becomes kill-or-be-killed, it is difficult to hang onto altruism.”
When Crews found out about Morrison’s death, she and a handful of the Veteran’s former Radio Maria co-workers decided they needed to do something in her name, something that would “resonate with our grief and with our disgust over her death.”
The Shawna Morrison Education Fund was established with the hope of offering an alternative to a student who looks at the military as an option for funding his or her secondary education.
While Crews openly admits that the purpose of the fund might offend Morrison, she also wrote “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.”
Another scholarship fund in Morrison’s name is the 1544th Memorial Scholarship run by the Edgar County Community Foundation.
The $500 scholarship is awarded to seniors at Paris High School in memory of Morrison. The recipient is selected by members of the Morrison family who are also present when the scholarship is awarded.
Across the globe, Morrison and three other fallen Illinois Soldiers from the 1544th Transportation Company have been honored for their support of postal operations in Iraq. A post office at Joint Base Balad (JBB), Iraq proudly displays a bronze plaque with the names of nine Soldiers and civilians who voluntarily gave their lives in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom as proud American citizens.
Memorials can also be found at the University of Illinois, in Kiwanis Park, throughout Paris and on the hearts of nearly every resident of Edgar County who continues to thrive because she paid the ultimate sacrifice.