PART I:
Vietnam shaped a generation of Americans and changed the country forever. The divisive conflict lasted well over a decade, during which more than 58,000 Americans were killed and 300,000 were wounded. The war bitterly divided the nation, bringing protests and mistrust of the government, as well as inflation and a reluctance to enter into foreign conflict for decades. It saw an end to the draft and it lowered the voting age. Soldiers returned home to name-calling instead of ticker-tape parades and many veterans struggled to make sense of the horrors of war. Despite all that, many south Alabamians bravely fought for their country and did their duty as soldiers, medics, and more. Of the approximately 2.7 million Americans who served in the war, less than 600,000 are alive today. In honor of the 50th anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the end of the Vietnam War on April 30, 2025, Mobile Bay Magazine is sharing the stories of four local veterans in four monthly installments. We honor their bravery and commitment to our country, and thank them for their service.
First Lieutenant Skeeter Morris
Skeeter Morris joined the ROTC in 1963, during his freshman year at the University of Alabama, when military training was mandatory for most male students. Recruits could opt out after two years in the program, but those who stayed received $40 a month.
“Forty dollars a month seemed a sufficient incentive,” Morris said. “I guess I was a cheap date.”
Morris, co-founder of Courtney & Morris Real Estate, was in his first year of law school at the University of Alabama in 1968, the year North Vietnamese leader Ho Chi Minh sent 80,000 troops and Viet Cong in the Tet Offensive. It was a surprise strike on more than 100 cities and outposts in South Vietnam in January 1968. The campaign was named after Tet, the start of the Lunar New Year and the most important holiday in Vietnam. The Tet Offensive ended in April 1968 as a defeat for the communists, but many American and Vietnamese soldiers died during the campaign, reducing American public support of the war…