Marco Antonio Morales

Marco served in the U.S. Army first, as a Signal Corps Soldier. After graduating from the Multi-Channel Communications Equipment Operator (31M) 16-week course at Fort Gordon, GA, in Spring of 1974, he was assigned to a one-year tour with the 2nd Infantry Division (2nd to None) at Camp Casey, South Korea (Tong-Du-Chon). His next assignment in Signal Corps was as a team chief with the 2/52 Air Defense Artillery at Fort Bliss, TX until he reenlisted for the 71Q MOS - Journalist in 1980. After DINFOS he was assigned to the Garrison Public Affairs Office at Fort Drum, NY, to work as editor of the "Sentinel" - a tabloid that was converted to a C&E paper during his tenure. In 1983, he received orders to Fort Gulick, Panama, as a bilingual editor for a multi-national magazine "Adelante" published in Spanish by the U.S. Army School of the Americas (USARSA) and distributed to 19 countries in Latin America via U.S. embassies, including countries in the Caribbean. Under a stipulation of the Panama Canal Treaty of 1977 which stated the school had to move from Panama, he served as the senior NCO for the USARSA which was officially closed in September 1984 and then moved to Fort Benning, GA, reopening in December 1984. His following assignments took him to South Korea again in 1989 with the 34th Support Group as editor of another tabloid, The "EAST Word" which consolidated five brigade-sized AAU newspapers and re-designated them into a C&E newspaper -- serving all units assigned to the Yongsan Army Installation under 8th U.S. Army. The conversion of the newspaper to C&E saved the U.S. government some $300,000 per year in printing and production costs. It was renamed to "Seoul Word" after his departure. In January 1991, he served an additional six months with the U.S. Forces - Korea public affairs office because of Desert Storm and Stop Loss. His next and final assignment in the active Army was as editor of the Fort Hood "Sentinel" located at III Corps Headquarters, Fort Hood. He retired honorably from the Army in 1993 moving to his hometown, El Paso, TX. For the next four years he worked as a part time security officer and as a computer graphics operator/copy editor for the El Paso Times (Gannett-owned) newspaper. By December 1997, after applying for several public affairs jobs in civil service, he was offered a position with the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command/Army Strategic Forces Command/Joint Functional Component Command for Integrated Missile Defense in Huntsville, AL, at a GS-11 position which he accepted. He served with that Command while being promoted to four GS-level positions until his retirement from civil service in October 2014, retiring honorably as director of public affairs (GS-15). A significant accomplishment while at the Army Space and Missile Defense Command was his support as key-lead public affairs specialist through 12 annual National Media Update events which included inviting - at their own expense - a diverse cross-section of more than 40 news media correspondents from accredited news media international entities (Agence France Presse, Associated Press, China Times, The Jerusalem Post), the Pentagon Press Corps and notable trade journals. This included reporters from the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and Chicago Sun-Times. The multiple-year event agendas featured invited key guest speakers from principal leadership space and missile defense positions which resulted in high public visibility to Huntsville area defense industry and in Congress in support of the latest developments for advanced technology development and acquisition of space and missile defense products in support of America's warfighter. This was accomplished in coordination with the DoD, combatant commands, Missile Defense Agency and other key space and missile defense entities. While at USASMDC/ARSTRAT/JFCC-IMD, he was also responsible for authoring, planning, and coordinating the Command's annual Strategic Communication Plan. His military training includes the journalist and photojournalist courses, editor's course, public affairs supervisor course (ANCOES), taken at DINFOS' former location at Fort Benjamin Harrison, IN, and the Army Advanced Public Affairs Course administered by the University of South Carolina. He earned a BA degree in English from the University of Texas at El Paso and an MA degree in Public Affairs (Political Science) from the University of Alabama in Huntsville. While in the Army going to school in the evening, he earned an AS in General Studies from Troy University. Marco also completed the Air War College correspondence course in Strategic Studies (2012) and several correspondence study courses while in the Army including the Medical Specialist Course and the U.S. Air Force Graphics Apprentice course. His awards and decorations include the Commander's Award for Civilian Service, Meritorious Service Medal w/2OLC, Army Commendation Medal, Army Achievement Medal w/4 OLC, National Defense Service Medal, Army Service Medal, NCO Professional Development Ribbon, Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal, and the Good Conduct Medal 6th award (silver clasp with one knot).