Veteran Finds Purpose Through Mentorship, Connecting With Boston Bombing Survivors

Healing through helping others. That is how one Columbia Navy veteran has found comfort after suffering a life-altering injury while deployed.

For retired U.S. Navy Chief John Morley, getting connected with the nonprofit organization Semper Fi & America’s Fund and becoming a mentor has also been life changing.

“This is what they call a shadow box in the military,” Morley said. “That's my Bronze Star and a Purple Heart.”

Pins and medals mark moments in his military career, made for Morley by his fellow military members.

“For me, that means a lot,” he said.

Morley grew up near Boston and joined the Navy after graduating from college in 1995. He then trained in San Diego as an explosive ordnance disposal specialist.

“As I finished my follow-on training, that's when September 11 happened. So for me, a newly graduated EOD tech, I ended up on a team that went right out,” Morley said.

He deployed four times in four years. Then in 2006, while in Iraq, Morley was struck by an explosive.

“They're asking me to count backwards from 100. I think I got to 98. But I remember the thought going through my head, 'geez, I hope this isn't it,'” Morley recalled.

Morley sustained burns on 40% of his body and was transported in a medevac to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, for recovery.

“I only knew that I had lost my hand. Everything else, no clue,” he said.

In the years since then, Morley has come to terms with losing his right hand.

“Basically learned to get dressed, brush my hair, teeth, tie my shoes, everything one-handed,” he said.

Today, he uses prosthetics.

“Certain banded pulling exercises and things like that I can now do,” he said.

The emotional journey has also been a long one.

“You just kind of sink into this place that's confusing,” he said.

Now, Morley says he has found one solution through Semper Fi & America’s Fund. The nonprofit provides lifetime financial and emotional support to critically wounded, ill and injured service members, veterans and military families.

It has helped 29,000 veterans across the country from all branches of the U.S. armed forces.

While he was in California, Morley was able to connect with other injured veterans by teaching them a skill he knew well from his Navy career: scuba diving.

“I think it was probably a class of 10 injured guys that were learning to scuba dive and stuff like that, which was a lot of fun,” Morley said.

Then he found work as an explosives specialist for the Department of Homeland Security, and transferred back home to Boston.

“I was there for about two years, and then the Boston Marathon bombing happened,” Morley said.

In the midst of chaos and tragedy, he noticed something.

“As I was watching the events, and the different people who had gotten hurt and their stories, I started noticing veterans that were there, a kind of a peer mentorship type thing, sharing their story of injury with these folks,” Morley said.

Through Semper Fi & America’s Fund, Morley was able to do the same. He connected with survivors of the bombing and helped them navigate the emotional and physical tolls of their injuries.

“The thought probably never crossed their mind that something like this could happen. They don't know how to deal with it. They didn't sign up for it. They didn’t volunteer for something dangerous,” Morley said. “Share my story, help them figure out how they can cope with their injuries, whether it was an amputation or just the fragmentation injuries I think worked more wonders for me than probably for them.”

For someone who says he has a hard time accepting assistance, Morley believes helping others ultimately turned into the best way to heal.

“Being an EOD tech in the Navy, there’s a purpose, and when it was taken away from me, that purpose kind of left,” Morley said. “It took me some time to be able to really find out who I was. And the fund, helping me and allowing me to give back, to mentor, is really the purpose I was looking for.”