Vicksburg soldier wounded in Afghanistan
Published 11:39 am Tuesday, May 17, 2011
A soldier from Vicksburg is recovering after an explosion in southeast Afghanistan, his parents said Monday.
Pvt. Jacob Morgan, 21, was wounded May 10 after the convoy he was with rolled over a bomb. He underwent surgery, to put a metal rod in his broken leg, Monday at Landstuhl Military Hospital in Germany
Derek Morgan said he got a call about 8:30 a.m. the day of the accident. Afghanistan’s time is about 10 hours ahead of Vicksburg’s.
“When I saw that number coming across my cell phone, I knew it was from Afghanistan and I knew it wasn’t good,” he said. “I was disconnected from everything else going on in my life.”
Jacob, calling from a military hospital in Kandahar, Afghanistan, told his father the bomb had exploded beneath the driver’s seat of the Mine Resistant Ambush Vehicle he was driving.
“I asked him if anything important was missing, and he said no,” Derek Morgan said. “Then I asked him if he was burned, and he said no.”
Derek Morgan left Jackson, where he had been working for the day, and returned to Vicksburg to tell his wife.
“I talked to (Derek) on the phone on my way to work,” said Amanda Morgan, who works at Covenant Health & Rehab. “I got to work and had a 9 o’clock meeting. When I got out of my meeting, he was standing there. I knew something was wrong.”
Derek Morgan escorted his wife into her office and told her the news.
“He told me Jacob had an accident,” she said. “He didn’t say anything else. I had to make him tell me it was a bomb.”
“It’s hard to tell your wife something like that,” Derek Morgan said. “The biggest thing was how do I start the conversation. I tried to sugarcoat it. Telling her that her son had an accident is better than telling her he was wounded by a bomb.”
The Morgans said Jacob called them Monday after his surgery and said he is receiving excellent care at Landstuhl. He is expected to arrive at Fort Bragg, N.C., Friday and, later, Vicksburg.
“I can’t wait to get my hands on him,” said Amanda Morgan, who along with her husband will head to Fort Bragg this week.
Jacob Morgan joined the Army in February of 2010, completed training five months later and left for overseas duty three months ago. He is part of the 87th Infantry Regiment of the 10th Mountain Division, based in Fort Drum, N.Y.
He is a 2008 graduate of Vicksburg High School and attended Hinds Community College.