MILFORD, Del.- U.S. Army Col. Michael T. Morrisey, a native of Milford, will be promoted to the rank of brigadier general in a Feb. 2 ceremony.
Morrisey, a 1987 graduate of Milford High School where he served as class vice president, has a long and storied career in the Army. From June 2017 to the present, he has served as G3 for USARCENT (United States Army Central) in Pinewood, South Carolina. And since July 2014 he has been assigned to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Prior to that, in July 2012 Morrisey was promoted to commander of the Army’s 31st Air Defense Artillery Brigade. From 2008 to 2011, Morrisey commanded the 5-5th ADA in Iraq and at Fort Lewis. Before commanding 5-5th, he served in numerous wartime operations and spent time in Washington, D.C., working in the Pentagon with the most senior leaders in the military, according to the Army.
Morrisey is a graduate of National War College, School of Advance Military Studies and Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania, according to his LinkedIn profile.
News of Morrisey’s promotion comes at no surprise to the people who know him. Mark Plummer, who was Morrisey’s teacher and baseball coach at Milford High, described his former student as a “standout memory” in his career as an educator at the school.
“Number one, Michael was never what you call the gifted student or gifted athlete where things sort of came easy to him, but he always a very hard worker,” Plummer recalled. “He was strong as an ox but again, that didn’t happen by accident. It happened by work in the weight room. Whatever he did he tried to do his best at, both in the classroom and on the athletic field.”
Plummer remembers Morrisey as “not one of those guys who was going to settle. He knew what he was going to be and was going to work at it.”
As far as his former student taking the military path, Plummer said he is not surprised at all.
“I definitely can see where he would become a leader of men,” Plummer said. “He gave 110 percent at whatever he did and other guys saw that.”
Jeff Greenly, a teacher at Milford Central Academy who grew up with Morrisey and played baseball and football in school with him, said of his former classmate, “Michael was always a strong leader in everything he was a part of. He was an easy person to get along with and a friend. I haven’t seen Michael in years but it does not surprise me that he is going to be a general in the Army.”
Morrisey was unable to be reached for comment for this article.
