December 2019 Veteran of the Month: Jack Morrison

From left: Attorney General Ashley Moody, Governor Ron DeSantis, FDACS Veteran of the Month for December 2019 Jack Morrison, Commissioner Nikki Fried, and Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis

Military Service

Air Support Operations Operator and later Crew Chief in the U.S. Marine Corps. Stationed at the Marine Air Support Squadron One at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. Deployed to Afghanistan twice. Left the military in 2012 with the rank of Sergeant (E-5).

Agriculture/Consumer Service

Veterans Florida intern at the UF/IFAS Range Cattle Research and Education Center in Ona, Florida.

Biography

Jack Morrison is a former Marine and current Veterans Florida intern in Ona, Florida. He is from Clermont, Florida, where he grew up working on his family’s tree farm and nursery. After high school he joined the Marines and served for five years with the Marine Air Support Squadron One at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, North Carolina. There he deployed twice to Afghanistan.

After completing his military service, he went back to Lake County and enrolled in community college and worked with honeybees and citrus. In 2017, Jack transferred to the University of Florida where he received his B.S. in food and resource economics in 2019. At UF he was also a member of Alpha Gamma Rho, a national agriculture fraternity.

Jack applied for the Veterans Florida Agriculture Program internship to gain a wider knowledge of Florida agriculture and learn more about the various sectors of the industry. On August 19, 2019, he began the six-month Veterans Florida Agriculture Program at the Ona Range Cattle Research and Education Center to learn about cattle, forages, agronomy and soil science research and extension. He has a long-term career goal to become a credit analyst, financially helping farmers or owning a farm himself.