Autobiography for Mick Cole - Associate Member

I was born in Seattle, Washington, in 1944, and lived in the small mountain town of Marblemount (see http://www.marblemount.com/images-mmt.htm for a few early images) in the Washington Cascades until the Sixth Grade, at which time my family lived in Big Lake, Washington, for a few years, before moving to Paramount, California, in Los Angeles County. As my mother was fond of saying, we were Los Angeles hillbillies long before the TV show “Beverly Hillbillies” became popular. At Marblemount, my first Sunday School teacher at a small Church of Christ was my grandmother Selma (Anderson) Morgan, who as church superintendant hired Pastor James Olson, whose first funeral service was for her husband, my grandfather Walter Melvin Morgan, grandson of my CSA ancestor Reuben Henderson Morgan, Scott County Militia, who was ordained in the Church of Christ in 1895. Pastor Olson came out of retirement in 2003 to conduct the service for my mother Nora May Morgan
(see here)

After graduating from Paramount High School I joined the U.S. Air Force, as I was not ready for further education—or so I thought. During boot camp I took a language test—shortly thereafter I received orders to go to Ft. George G. Meade in Maryland for a year of full-time study of the Vietnamese language. Upon completion of language school, it was off to Goodfellow AFB, San Angelo, Texas, for several months of voice intercept operator training. After a brief stop at Clark AB, Philippine Islands, I spent several months at a listening post on top of Monkey Mountain, near DaNang, Republic of Viet Nam. In later summer 1965, as Rolling Thunder was gearing up, I and a few other Vietnamese linguists were sent to the PI for jungle training, following which we became aviators—airborne voice intercept operators—without benefit of aviation traing, aviation gear, or aeronautical orders.

The aircraft and the rest of the crew staged out of Thailand, dropping into DaNang just long enough to pick up a Vietnames linguist or two, before proceeding to the Gulf of Tonkin for a few hours on orbit, then stopping back at DaNang just long enough to drop us off. On my first mission, I was tasked with monitoring North Vietnamese fighter communications to give our ingressing fighter-bombers the information they needed to accomplish their mission and return to home base—definitely provided the motivation needed to learn a difficult job with a steep learning curve. I flew around 300 10 to 18 hour missions over the Gulf of Tonkin and Plaines des Jarres in the back of C-130BII’s, RC-135M’s, and EC-121’s from late 1965 until late 1969, before deciding it was time to hang up my headset and move on.

After undergraduate school at UC Berkeley and law school at the U of Idaho, I moved to Tacoma, Washington, where I practiced law for five years before deciding that I preferred writing about law to practicing it.

I currently live in Rochester, NY, where I work for a legal publisher.

I have been married for 25 years, and have 3 children—ages 15, 18, and 22. I became interested in my ancestry when my daughter joined a BSA Venturing Crew specializing in re-enacting. As I started studying the War more closely, I decided to research whether I had any ancestors who had served. Little did I realize that I would find well over 100 ancestors who served on both sides, mostly from Scott County, Virginia, and nearby areas of Kentucky. My research led me to join the Sons of Confederate Veterans, which I serve as the Commander of Guy-Thurmon Camp #1928.

At least four of my ancestors served with the 13th Kentucky (Caudill’s) Cavalry—my ggg-uncle Hiram F. Strong, 1st cousins Ira Estill Fugate and Nathan Ellington Fugate, and 2nd cousin Edward Callahan Strong. I also had 4 cousins who served with the 5th Kentucky Infantry. My gg-grandfather Reuben Henderson Morgan, who later became an ordained minister in the Church of Christ, served with the Scott County (Virginia) Militia, along with at least 3 of his nephews. A 1st cousin, Robert Preston Spencer, who was reported to be the oldest man in the 64th Virginia Mounted Infantry/Cavalry, served that unit as a Chaplain. Chaplain Spencer’s son James F. Spencer was wounded at Pound Gap Station, Virginia, on March 16, 1862, and died of his wounds the following day. Another son, William G. Spencer, enlisted when he was 16, and served with the 25th Virginia Cavalry. A number of other cousins served the Confederacy with the 64th and 25th, as well as the 48th Virginia Infantry, the Missouri Cavalry, the Texas Cavalry, and the Georgia Infantry. At least one cousin, James Monroe Dykes, was among those members of the 64th VA captured at Cumberland Gap who died of disease at Chicago’s infamous Camp Douglas. Some of the other family names for my many ancestors who served the Confederacy are: Bolton, Cogswell, Head, Hickam, Hopkins, Franklin, Frazier, Lewis, Livingston, Oakley, Osborne, Quillen, Rash, Ware, Williams, and Woolsey.

As might be expected in an area of the country where family loyalties were tragically divided, I also have many Union ancestors, including gg-grandfathers Armstrong Abbott (59th Indiana Infantry) and Byrd Franklin (65th KY Infantry (Enrolled Militia)), who married Susan Strong, the niece of the 13th KY Cavalry’s Surgeon Strong. One of Surgeon Strong’s cousins was William “Captain Bill” Strong, the Captain of Company K, 14th KY Cavalry (Union).