Retired fire chief inducted into military firefighter hall of fame

by Airman 1st Class Megan Friedl
375th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

6/3/2015 - SCOTT AIR FORCE BASE, Ill. -- After serving 44 years in the Air Force, and retired for the past 12 years, Duane Morgan has been nominated and selected to become part of the Military Firefighter Heritage Foundation Hall of Fame for 2015.

Every year at the Department of Defense Fire Academy at Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, up to five exemplary military members, who have served or are currently serving in the fire department, are inducted into the Hall of Fame. They are selected based off of their successful careers and the contributions that they've made while serving.

Raymond Porter, a friend and colleague of Morgan, nominated him for the Hall of Fame. Porter was inducted into the Hall of Fame in the previous year.

"I feel honored," said Morgan. "All of the students go by that every day when they go to class and that means a lot to me to have my name up there."

At the age of only 17, Morgan began his military career as an active duty firefighter. He worked all the way up to AMC Fire Chief. He said that becoming a fire chief here at Scott was one of his proudest achievements. Out of his 44 years serving in the Air Force as an active duty member and as a civilian, he spent 19 of those years at Scott. During that time one of his biggest contributions was submitting a suggestion for the Air Force Idea Program. He suggested installing penetrator nozzles on Aircraft Rescue Firefighting vehicles which would reduce manpower by one position. With his idea he saved the Air Force thousands of dollars.

Another friend and colleague of Morgan is retired Chief Master Sgt. Paul Kempton, 375th Civil Engineer Squadron Deputy Chief, who worked with Morgan for six years at Scott.
Morgan and Kempton both said they learned a lot from each other during their time working together. One of the many things that Kempton learned from Morgan is his genuine care for Airmen.

"It was determined that any Air Force firefighter who spends 20 years in [the Air Force] will be spending 13 of those years in the fire house," said Kempton. "He authored the initiative to upgrade the fire house living quarters to improve quality of life."

Kempton said Morgan ensured health and safety were held to a high standard.

In 1990, as a member of the Air Mobility Command fire protection staff, Morgan also developed the Command Fire Station Design Guide which helped to identify and correct response time deficiencies at five out of 15 AMC bases. He also visited all of the Air Mobility Command base fire departments to identify deficiencies and programmed correction projects worth an estimated $48 million.

After all the years of success Morgan has had, he credits all of his accomplishments to studying and hard work. He said, "There isn't any reason why you can't achieve."