United States. The Service Uniform Attributed to Vice Admiral Donald McGregor Morrison, USCG

This service uniform blouse was worn by Vice Admiral Morrison as Acting Commandant of the Coast Guard, while representing the service at all of the funeral ceremonies following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963.   

The exterior is in black wool, with a large pocket on the left breast that has a three-level seven ribbon bar sewn in place above it: 1. Legion of Merit; 2. American Defense Service Medal with bronze "A" (Atlantic Fleet); American Campaign Medal; Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star; 3. European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal; World War II Victory Medal; National Defense Service Medal. The front has a vertical row of three brass buttons and reinforced button holes on the right side, facing an equal number of buttons and reinforced button holes on the left side. Each of the buttons illustrating a fouled anchor framed within an open-ended wreath of laurel leaves, the anchor surmounted by an eagle, marked "SUPERIOR QUALITY" on their reverses. Both cuffs are adorned with a Coast Guard Gold Shield Sleeve Device in beaded, twisted and rolled gold-colored copper wire in high relief, with both shields resting upon a black shield-shaped wool base. Below each shield are three rank stripes in fine bullion wire below in various textures below consisting of two rows of thin stripes above a wide stripe, designating it as the rank of Vice Admiral. The inside and sleeves are lined in greenish-black nylon, with pockets on both breasts, the right breast pocket with an embroidered tailor's label inscribed "FRANK THOMAS CO. NORFOLK" sewn in place. The collar has a 60 mm long black cotton strap sewn in place, designed to hang the blouse upon a hook. The blouse measures 480 mm across the shoulders and 720 mm in length overall, exhibiting light soiling on the black wool exterior, is free of mothing and holes. As worn. The blouse is accompanied by (i) a reproduction letter from Morrison dated December 7, 1976 that is addressed to Militaria Archives of Chicago confirming that this particular blouse was worn by him as Acting Commandant of the Coast Guard, while representing the service at all of the funeral ceremonies, as a member of the Special Honor Guard, composed of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, as well as himself, following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, (ii) a duo-tang binder containing a four-page extensive biography of Morrison, (iii) along with a 190 mm (w) x 240 mm (h) reproduction photograph of Vice Admiral Morrison, 

Footnote: The majority of the following biography is courtesy of the United States Coast Guard Historian's Office. Donald McGregor Morrison was born on December 4, 1906 in Glens Falls, New York, the youngest of three children of John R. Morrison and Mary Burch Morrison.  At the age of eight ,his family moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, where he graduated from King George High School in 1925. He studied civil engineering at the University of Chattanooga (Tennessee) and at the University of Washington in Seattle, enrolling in the latter's Naval ROTC unit. He left college to work as a Civil Service employee with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a survey project of the Tennessee River. In 1928, he entered the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at New London, Connecticut, with an appointment as cadet and graduated with a commission as Ensign on May 15, 1931. Subsequently, he would advance in rank to Lieutenant (jg), May 15, 1934; Lieutenant, May 15, 1936; Lieutenant Commander, June 15, 1942; Commander, November 1, 1942; Captain, August 6, 1951; Rear Admiral, February 1, 1961; Vice Admiral, July 3, 1962.

After attending the Academy, he was assigned first to the Coast Guard Cutter Haida at Seattle, then to the Cutter Snohomish at Port Angeles, and in August 1931, was stationed aboard the Cutter Tallapoosa which was based at Juneau, Alaska. He was transferred in March 1934, serving as navigator first in the Cutter Gresham and then in the Cutter Seneca out of Mobile, Alabama. At the decommissioning of the latter in 1935, he was assigned as a student engineer aboard the Cutter Pontchartrain which operated out of New York City. While with that vessel he served on the 1936 and 1937 International Ice Patrol. During the Ohio-Mississippi River flood of 1937, he was assigned temporarily to assist the Coast Guard flood relief forces at Cairo, Illinois. 

In April 1938, he reported to the Cutter Northland at Seattle, to serve as engineer officer during her last Arctic mission from the West Coast. After the decommissioning of the vessel at Oakland, California, he instructed licensed Merchant Marine personnel in marine engineering at the Maritime Service Training Station on Government Island, Alameda, California. When the Northland was re-commissioned in June 1939, he accompanied her to Boston, Massachusetts, to assist in her outfitting for the second Byrd Antarctic Expedition. Upon the eruption of hostilities in Europe in September 1939, the Northland was withdrawn from the expedition and returned to Alameda. The following month of May, he sailed with that cutter to the New York Navy Yard, where she was fitted for special duty in Greenland. He continued serving as her engineer officer and also as her executive officer until May 1941, during which he made two extended cruises to Greenland.

During the next two years, he was assigned to the Cooper Bessemer Corporation at Grove City, Pennsylvania, as chief machinery inspector for a new 180-foot class of buoy tenders, and at the Marine Iron and Shipbuilding Company and Zenith Dredge Company at Duluth, Minnesota, to supervise the installation of machinery, tests, and trail runs of those vessels. Upon completion of the project, he was assigned as Coast Guard representative in the Office of Inspector of Machinery, U.S. Navy, at the plant of Fairbanks-More Corporation in Beloit, Wisconsin, for Diesel engines being built for heavy duty "Wind"-class icebreakers. These icebreakers were designed by the Coast Guard for Arctic duty as a result of the war emergency and were then under construction. He had the additional duties at that time of training Naval and Coast Guard personnel in the operation of engines used in submarines, destroyers, as well as in Coast Guard icebreakers.

In August 1943, during World War II, he became engineer officer of the attack troop transport USS Cambria (APA-36) while she was undergoing conversion at the Todd Hoboken Plant, New Jersey. A Commander at that time, he served as her executive officer in the Pacific Marshall Islands campaigns at Majuro, Kwajelein, and Eniwetok. In April 1944, he was reassigned to the troop transport USS General M.C. Meigs (AP-116) which was then being built at the Federal Shipbuilding Company, Kearney, New Jersey. After commissioning of that vessel, he was her engineer officer while she engaged in transporting troops from Norfolk, Virginia to the Mediterranean. In September 1944, he was assigned as training officer and later as executive officer at the Coast Guard Training Station in Groton, Connecticut. Reporting next to the attack troop transport USS Joseph T. Dickman (APA-13) at Eniwetok in August 1945, he served first as her executive officer and later as her commanding officer. The Dickman, with him aboard, was one of the first transports to return a large number of recovered allied prisoners of war from the Philippines to the United States, and later participated in the "Magic Carpet" program of returning military personnel from the Pacific war zone to home shores. His awards for service during World War II include: the American Defense Service Medal with bronze "A" (Atlantic Fleet), the American Campaign Medal, the Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal with one bronze star, the European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal and the World War II Victory Medal. 

After decommissioning of the Dickman in March 1946 and until June 1959, he served as Chief, Marine Engineering Section, then as Chief, Engineering Division in the 14th Coast Guard District office at Honolulu, Hawaii. Stationed next in the 17th Coast Guard District office at Juneau, Alaska, he served there as Chief, Engineering Division and also as aide to Ernest Gruening, Governor of Alaska. From September 1952 to July 1954, he commanded the Coast Guard Cutter Bibb (WPG-31) which operated out of Boston, Massachusetts, as an ocean station (weather) patrol vessel in the North Atlantic. He was then assigned to the Naval War College at Newport, Rhode Island, for a course of instructions in naval warfare. Completing the course in July 1955, he became Chief, Shore Units Division at Coast Guard Headquarters in Washington, D.C. In June 1958, he was reassigned as special assistant to the Commandant of the Coast Guard. One year later he became Chief of the Operations Division at the 5th Coast Guard District office which was then located in Norfolk, Virginia. In June 1960, he reported in San Francisco to assume the double duties of Deputy Commander, Western Area and Chief of Staff of the 12th Coast Guard District.

With the nomination of the President John F. Kennedy on February 3, 1961, and the consent of the Senate, the then Captain Morrison was appointed to the permanent grade of Rear Admiral to rank from February 1, 1961. He took his oath of office on March 24th. Concurrent with that appointment he received orders to report to Coast Guard Headquarters for duty as Chief of the Office of Operations in June 1961. He was designated Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard on June 1, 1962. Again with the nomination of the President on June 20, 1962 and consent of the Senate, he was sworn in as Assistant Commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard with the permanent rank of Vice Admiral on July 3, 1962. Following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, Vice Admiral Morrison, as Acting Commandant of the Coast Guard, represented the service at all of the funeral ceremonies, as a member of the Special Honor Guard, which was composed of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Commandant of the Marine Corps, as well as himself. 

Vice Admiral Morrison retired on July 1, 1964, with the Legion of Merit award for outstanding service covering the term of his duties as Assistant Commandant, also receiving the National Defense Service Medal. He was succeeded in the post by VADM William D. Shields, USCG. Vice Admiral Morrison was married to the former Betty Israel of Dayton, Washington, the couple having two children: Donald McGregor Morrison, Jr. (March 24, 1934 - June 4, 1971, age 37, buried in Arlington National Cemetery), a former Lieutenant in the Coast Guard; and Permelia Ann, wife of former Lieutenant James E. Brown, Jr., USCG. Vice Admiral Donald McGregor Morrison died on March 9, 1989 in Beaumont, Texas, at the age of 82 and was interred in Arlington National Cemetery, in Arlington, Virginia, Section 2-DD, 27, 2.