Jim Morrison’s Dad Played A Role In The Gulf Of Tonkin Incident
- by Madeline Hiltz
For hardcore fans of ‘The Doors’, it is relatively well-known that lead singer Jim Morrison’s father was a flag officer in the US Navy. A lesser-known fact is that Jim Morrison’s father, Captain George Stephen Morrison, commanded the Carrier Division during the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident famously gave the Johnson Administration the justification they needed to escalate the Vietnam War.
Early Military Career
George Morrison was born on January 7, 1919, in Rome, Georgia. He graduated from the US Naval Academy in 1941. After graduation, he was sent to Hawaii to join the crew of the minelayer, USS Pruitt. He was present at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked the naval base.
After completing several combat deployments as a surface warfare officer, George Morrison decided to attend flight school. After graduating from the Naval Air Station in Pensacola, Florida in 1944, Morrison flew combat missions over Wake Island and Honshu, Japan, in the last year of the Second World War.
