LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) – A local organization is keeping the memory alive of an Air Force pilot who disappeared in Vietnam 50 years ago.
On Sunday a ceremony was held at Veteran’s Park in Lexington for Colonel Joseph Morrison.
The Georgetown College graduate was serving in Vietnam when his plane was hit. He ejected and was ok but eventually, the military lost contact with him and he was listed as missing in action.
Charleen Morrison Bloom was a teenager when her uncle went missing. She remembers how much it hurt her family.
“The hardest thing for my grandmother and my dad was the not knowing, because we didn’t know. Nobody knew anything. He went from missing in action to a pow and no one ever knew anything,” said Morrison Bloom.
Nonprofit organization Rolling Thunder put together the memorial as a way to recognize the sacrifices Morrison and his family made.
“We’re making sure that these family members are constantly being reminded that we’ve got people that are looking for them. We’ve got people that are honoring them and paying our respect,” said Todd Matonich with Rolling Thunder.
They plan to do this for all Kentucky military personnel listed as missing in action or prisoners of war.
“I just thought it was a beautiful service. It was very respectful,” said Morrison Bloom.
Decades later, after Morrison Bloom’s grandmother and parents had died, she did get some answers. In 1992, based on photographs, the U.S. government concluded Colonel Morrison had died in a shootout with the North Vietnamese. But no remains have been recovered.
