CHAMPAIGN — A fallen U.S. Army soldier known and loved by many in Champaign will be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, honoring a life given in service of her country.
Sgt. Shawna Morrison of the Illinois National Guard’s 1544th Transportation Company was the first woman in U.S. history who was actively enrolled in a university to fall in overseas combat operations while serving in the U.S. Army.
She died Sept. 5, 2004, in a mortar attack on her base during Operation Iraqi Freedom.
She was 26 years old, a nine-year veteran of the Army National Guard and a junior in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at the University of Illinois.
Sgt. Morrison’s “home of record” as listed by the military was the Edgar County city of Paris, but her mother, Cindy Morrison, said Champaign became her home, too.
“All her life was here, working at Radio Maria, attending Parkland College, attending the U of I. She was a Champaign gal,” Morrison family spokesman A. Mark Neuman said Thursday. “This was her home of choice, as opposed to her home of record.”
Sgt. Morrison was recognized in a ceremony at the UI in 2013, which Neuman said was already a rare event that was made even more special because her National Guard company, an Illinois-based Army band and campus ROTC leadership all came together to honor her.
“Now I can kind of understand how Shawna felt about this school, what it meant to her more than just a learning institution,” Cindy Morrison said at the time. “It was a family institution, and the same with the National Guard. That was her family.”
Prior to the interment at Arlington, Sgt. Morrison was buried at the Edgar Cemetery in Paris.
Cindy, Sgt. Morrison’s father Rick and brother Allan will all participate in a ceremony at Section 60 of Arlington. Sgt. Morrison will be the first UI student killed in action to be buried at Arlington in more than 50 years.
She was also the first then-enrolled UI student to be killed in action since World War II.
Neuman said that not only is the interment an honor for Sgt. Morrison, but an assurance to her family that someone will care for the burial site for years to come.
“On Memorial Day, people come there from all over the country to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, and (her parents) want Shawna to be with other people who gave their lives to this country in a section of the cemetery where many of the combat casualties are buried,” Neuman said.
“There’s permanent infrastructure to make sure there’s a flag on Memorial Day, that there’s a wreath on Christmas, and so on. That means a lot.”
Neuman said Sgt. Morrison is remembered as someone who truly cared for her community and country.
She signed up to the National Guard at 17, prepared to help with domestic challenges such as natural disasters.
She couldn’t have known the call would come for deployment to Iraq; she could have easily been deferred and finished her education, but she agreed to serve, Neuman said.
“She was a great inspiration of the land-grant ideal, citizen soldier, serving your community, being in your community,” he said. “In that sense, she was a great role model for young people in Champaign-Urbana.”
Her family remembers her as caring and loving in her personal life, too.
“Shawna was always full of life. She enjoyed every moment … loved her friends, always put others before herself,” Allan Morrison said.
“You weren’t a stranger very long if you met her,” Cindy Morrison said.
Source link
#Fallen #soldier #roots #interred #Arlington
