Marine SOCS and Sm"eye"les

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/ross-morris-7a62b03_captain-hugh-bud-ross-morris-age-22-usmc-activity-6996930223640330240-0ct7/?trk=public_profile_like_view

I'm pretty sure that Hugh Ross Morris (STA 1941) is third from the right, front row, in the above photo. Unfortunately, the listings for the photo are alphabetical rather than positional. You can check his Marine photo at the link above (posted by his son, Ross, on LinkedIn) and see if you think I'm right. The smile says it all in my opinion. I learned this is sometimes called a Duchenne smile.

I'm certain that Hugh "Bud" Ross Morris (STA 1941) is fifth from the right, front row, in the above photo (thank you Albanian editors for identifying the boys by position in the 1938 Albanian). Again, the smile was the giveaway.

I learned about Mr. Morris this week while researching materials for our war memorial plaque -- we are updating it to include alumni who were not included in 2003. Further research has identified a dozen more war dead. I was trying to find out if Mr. Morris should be included or not. Although he served in the teeth of the Pacific campaign in 1945, he survived (again as noted in his son's LinkedIn post).

I further learned a bit about the group Bud Morris trained with: the Marines Special Officer Candidate School (SOCS), 1944, known also as the SOCS 400. This was a page of Marine Corps history I knew nothing about until my conversation with Ross Morris. I have a lot more to learn. The story is more fully told in two books: We Few: The Marine Corps 400 in the War against Japan, by James R. Dickenson; The SOCS 400, by Joseph Frederick Clement.

According to the Amazon review, the SOCS 400, came into being because of dire circumstances and large losses of Marine Officers in the Pacific.

"Desperate for junior officers to meet the wartime demands of its rapid expansion and to replace the mounting casualties in its Pacific battles, the U.S. Marine Corps convened a Special Officer Candidate School (SOCS) at Camp Lejeune in 1944. This special class was to augment the regular Officer Candidates School (OCS) at Quantico, which was operating at full capacity. The young candidates had been enlisted in the V-12 officers procurement program and called to active duty from colleges and universities across the country. Destined to fight in some of the bloodiest battles of the war then answer the call to arms again in Korea, the Marines of this special class, who called themselves the 'SOCS 400,' served in the Minuteman tradition established at Lexington and Concord nearly two centuries earlier."

The Wilmington (NC) Morning Star, October 4, 1944, described the intense training.

"The winning of commissions by these Marines climaxed 11 weeks of rugged training and intensive study at the nearby Marine installation. Their training record included eight months of V-12 college work, nine weeks of boot camp at Parris Island and at Camp Lejeune, nine weeks of officer candidate applicant training, topped by the 11 weeks SOCS course which won them their gold bars."

And back to that smile. It was the first thing I noticed in the first search result listed for Hugh Ross Morris. He came to St. Albans in B Form in 1934 and stayed through the end of his Form III year in 1938. He went on to Deerfield and Dartmouth, and according to his son, he missed his college graduation due to his shipping out for the Pacific. What he and his fellow SOCS endured in the 333 days between SOCS graduation (October 4, 1944) and V-J Day (September 2, 1945), is told in the same Amazon review.

"Eliminating some of the traditional training of young Marine officers, this special OCS curriculum concentrated on infantry tactics and weapons, and ninety percent of the class wound up as platoon leaders on Iwo and Okinawa. Forty-eight of them were killed, 168 wounded, for a casualty rate of some 58 per cent. For their heroic actions they earned a host of decorations, including five Navy Crosses. Eight more were wounded in Korea and one more earned a Navy Cross. Many believe they had the highest casualty and decoration rates of any Marine OCS class in World War II."

And through all that, he still had that same, lilting smile -- what a tribute to yet another St. Albans life, another member of "the greatest generation" dedicated to freedom and service to our nation.