David remembers fishing on the beach with his friend Hardy McAlhaney and filling a 5-gallon bucket with several 8”-10” spot tail bass. The two boys were so excited when they came back with their catch. Zoo replied, “that’s wonderful…now clean ‘em.” David said he never caught a fish again unless he was going to eat it. 

When Buddy died, Zoo quit going out to the camp, and Buck Morris, David’s dad, held it together with bolts, nails, glue and love. The best recollections of David’s life were at that camp, memories of crabbing, fishing and walking the beach looking for turtle tracks. In June of 1965, David graduated from Beaufort High School. He was only seventeen when he joined the Navy, and his life would change forever.

David was assigned to Underwater Demolition Training Team 11 in August of 1966 and subsequently spent the next seven months in pre-deployment training as a SEAL. He arrived in Vietnam on February 21, 1968. He remembers that day being very hot, like walking into an oven. He remembers nothing about the day he came home. In April, his team was assigned to a navy barge anchored in the middle of the Mekong River with PBRs (Patrol Boat Riverine) that would transport his platoon for intelligence gathering, ambushing, and carrying prisoners. One evening, a weapon of a SEAL team member accidentally malfunctioned and discharged when the vibration of the boat caused a pin to work loose. One team member, a First Class Petty Officer married with children, was killed and another severely injured. This was the first of three incidents that he identifies as “the worst” during his tour.

A few weeks later, David was shot in the leg by friendly gunfire, for which he received the Purple Heart. Yet, David felt undeserving of the honor because of the accidental origin of the wound. While he was in the converted gymnasium purposed as an infirmary, two more members of his team were killed and two more were severely wounded and medically discharged. This period was the second series of events that forever lives in David’s consciousness. The repercussion of the third and most psychologically destructive episode is David’s involvement in a war crime after being given orders to, “Do it.” The image of the prisoner who was believed to work for the South Vietnamese Army and also the Vietcong would later haunt his mind, body and spirit to permanent disability.

David returned to the States and later received a degree in business administration from the University of South Carolina in 1972. He was then accepted into Aviation Officer Candidate School and reported to Pensacola, FL in 1973. Realizing that flying gave him too much anxiety, David was given orders to SEAL Team Two. During this time, he married his first wife and had a son. David received honorable discharge from active duty in 1976. He and his family returned to Beaufort, and he worked at his father’s gas station, an occupation that he describes as, “little pressure, little stress and making enough money to get by.”

After his divorce, David was given full custody of his son, and in 1979, he met the love of his life, Becky who had a son the same age as his. David started going in the river again, frequently taking the boys to the camp on Pritchard’s…his happy place. For the next two decades, David worked low stress jobs, lived simply with Becky and the boys and maintained a life with minimal anxiety; although, there wasn’t a day that passed that he didn’t think of Vietnam.

In 1996, the Veterans Administration urged Vietnam Veterans to take an Agent Orange physical at their local VA hospital after a rise in cancer deaths. As part of the physical, David was asked a series of questions about witnessing torture, seeing men and women killed, etc. He was asked for names. David explains, “Those names had been in my head for twenty-eight years. I had never spoke them out loud.” He broke down, describing his experience as having a, “mini explosion in the front part of my brain.”

David had PTSD since 1968, but had suppressed the memories. His doctor explained that the longer he kept them inside, the harder it would be to come out. David struggled with extreme social anxiety and disturbing dreams. He was placed on 100% disability. Though he and Becky were now married, they lived in two different houses on the same property.

One day, David was driving over the Broad River Bridge and witnessed an out of body experience. The prisoner of war he killed was sitting next to him in his truck. He simply said to David, “It’s okay.” Becky convinced David this was a divine encounter from God. David forgave himself, and from that point forward he began to slowly get his story out. He started his journal, and over time concluded he wanted to help others suffering from the incurable, but treatable diagnosis of PTSD.

More detailed information surrounding the definitive and tragic events of 1968 and the distressing years that followed can be found in David’s book, Coming Full Circle, Living with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, published in 2009 and again in 2018. Included in the book are David’s journal entries describing his nightmares. Though difficult to read, he gives an accurate account of living with PTSD. He wants other veterans and those diagnosed with PTSD to know they are not alone.

His divine experience has brought David closer to God. He knows that his experiences in Vietnam have now given him purpose. David wants to start journaling now about his fond memories of Humble Buck’s, his dad’s camp on Pritchard’s Island. He says, “90% of the memories are still in my head. I need to get them out.”

He laughed, “I remember pulling someone water skiing. I couldn’t reduce the speed on the throttle. We were going around and around in circles until I realized I should run the boat up on the beach.” Becky replies, “David, you’ve never told me that story.”

As the joyful memories start to come out, David may have another book in his future…a memoir of life on Pritchard’s…his happy place. With God as his savior, Becky and his family as his support system, David Morris now uses journaling as his therapy. He has now “Come Full Circle.”