Rear Admiral Morton, Salisbury native, to speak to Military Officers group
Published 12:00 am Monday, November 4, 2013
SALISBURY — Rear Admiral Douglas G. Morton, commander of the Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, will be guest speaker Nov. 11 of the Central Carolina Chapter of the Military Officers Association of America.
The group will meet at noon Nov. 11 at the Rufty-Holmes Senior Center, 1120 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave.
The association welcomes interested guests to this meeting. You must make a reservation by calling Chapter President David Lee at 704-636-6650, no later than Wednesday. The cost of the meal is $7, payable at the door.
A native of Salisbury, Morton is son of Jim and Shirley Morton of China Grove. Jim Morton is a retired commander of the Navy’s Civil Engineering Corps.
Douglas Morton’s current assignment gives him responsibility for planning, design, acquisition, maintenance and operation for the Naval Shore Establishment spread over two-thirds of the world.
In Salisbury, he attended Overton Elementary School and St. John’s Lutheran Church. He was active in Scouting and Little League before moving to Virginia Beach when his father returned from deployment in Vietnam.
Douglas Morton graduated from N.C. State University with a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering — construction option.
He was commissioned an ensign in the Civil Engineer Corps in 1983. He holds a master’s degree in civil engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and is a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, the Executive Program at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia and Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Seminar XXI.
Morton is a Seabee combat warfare officer, a registered professional engineer in Georgia and a member of the Acquisition Professional community.
His personal awards include the Legion of Merit (three awards), Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal (five awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (three awards), Army Commendation Medal and Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (three awards).
He also received the 1996 Society of American Military Engineers’ Moreell Medal for his service in Operation Joint Endeavor.
Morton assumed command of Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Atlantic, in August 2012.
His other command tours include Naval Construction Battalion 133, where he led the battalion through depolyments to Guam and Southwest Asia and Naval Facilities Engineering Command Southeast.
Morton is married to a college classmate, Margaret Peeples of Greer, S.C., and the couple have two daughters.