Vietnam War combat veteran Freddy Morales was surprised and honored recently by Stanislaus County as the “Veteran of the Year” in Supervisor Channce Condit’s District 5.

It was the first time he’d been honored publicly for his service in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1967-1970 which included a 13-month tour in Vietnam where he was wounded.

“Mr. Morales exemplifies everything it means to be a Marine and a patriot,” said Condit. “He is undoubtedly an American hero and is more than deserving of this recognition. Not only has Mr. Morales served our country honorably but continues his unwavering commitment to a lifetime of service present in his continued service through volunteerism throughout Stanislaus County.”

Born in Hanford to farm laborer parents, Morales grew up on a farm near Kettleman City and graduated from Avenal High School before enlisting in the Marines with the overshadowing Vietnam Conflict.

“I wasn’t going to wait to be drafted,” said Morales. 

His decision to enlist was based on the difficulty of finding work since employers were reluctant to take a chance with hiring men of drafting age as they could snatched away to Asia.

“You couldn’t really start your life with that draft hanging over your head.”

Morales intended to make a career in the Marines but after his 13-month tour of duty in Vietnam but said “I couldn’t bring myself to do that.”

There was just too much killing.

Three weeks after he arrived in Vietnam, a Viet Cong rifle grenade exploded near Morales during one firefight and a piece of shrapnel ripped into his face. 

“You know that saying, ‘you never hear the one that hits you’? I didn’t hear the grenade at all. I heard the distinctive sound of AK-47s. The next thing I knew I was face down on the ground bleeding from my face. I just blacked out for a little bit, I think.”

“There wasn’t enough room in the Medi-vac chopper so I ended up walking back to the base.

The surgeon didn’t want to mess with removing the fragment so he carries it today and notes that it shows up in dental x-rays.

“I tell people it gave me my rugged good looks,” he joked.

Morales arrived during the Tet Offensive of 1968 and remained fighting in Vietnam until his 13-month tour was over.

“We think we were pretty well trained but we weren’t trained to face the actual bullets flying around you, the explosions around you and seeing your buddies shot and killed. We lost several of our Marine buddies in the first month we were there. We suffered a lot of casualties.”

The worst day of his life –he calls it – was March 11 on his 19th birthday. Morales, part of a four-man machine gun fire team, was scheduled to go on patrol but was told he could stay back that night to celebrate his birthday.

“I got drunk that night. The next morning the squad leader gave me the machine gun and told me to clean it. The other three members of the fire team were killed in the firefight the night before. And then I became a one-man fire team, which there’s usually four.”

He hasn’t celebrated the 56 birthdays that followed because of that horrible memory associated with it.”

Morales, who didn’t drink alcohol until the war experience, became a functioning alcoholic until he quit in 1990. In that time he held down a job but his marriage to his first wife didn’t survive.

“My drinking just tore everything apart. My counselor told me it was survivors’ guilt because so many of my buddies didn’t make it back home and I did.”

Looking back, Morales laments the waste of 58,220 young Americans who averaged 19 years of age.

“Yeah, I think we didn’t do any good over there. Americans made the same mistakes the French did. They underestimated the Vietnamese people fighting to get their country together. The thing being told was we were going to stop communism. We weren’t there for that – we were there to kill as many Viet Cong as we could. ‘Cause we couldn’t claim territory we conquered. We had to have a body count. We were sent out on search and destroy missions. We went out in the jungle and picked a fight with the Viet Cong. They were experienced fighters. Bombing North Vietnam to the ground didn’t stop them, they just kept coming.”

After his divorce in 1995, work in the oil industry took him from Lemoore to Stanislaus County. He met his second wife, Lupe, in Modesto and settled in Ceres in 2007.

Morales earned a number of awards and medals during his service, which includes the National Defense Service Medal, Rifle Marksmanship Badge, Good Conduct Medal, Vietnam Service Medal with one service star, a Purple Heart medal and the Combat Action Ribbon.

Morales belongs to five veterans organizations. He is a member of the Ceres Post 491 of the American Legion and the Ceres Post 10293 of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). He also is a member of the American GI Forum (PFC Oscar Sanchez Modesto Chapter), and the Stanislaus County Veteran Advisory Commission representing Supervisorial District 5.