Army Sergeant Steve Morin Jr. was killed in action on September 28, 2005 when an improvised exploding device went off and turned over the vehicle he was riding in near Umm Qasr, Iraq. Sgt. Morin was assigned to the 111th Engineer Battalion, 36th Infantry Division, Texas Army National Guard, Mineral Wells, Texas, and was serving under Operation Iraqi Freedom at the time of his death.

Sgt. Morin joined the Navy when he was 17 years old, attending the United States Naval Academy and graduating with the class of 1997. By the time of his death, he had served the Navy for 14 years, the National Guard for 2 years, and was planning to attend Officers Candidate School.

“He’s very strong willed, very determined. Humorous, a clown, but he was also very disciplined and very passionate about what he believed in,” Gwendolyn Morin, the late Sergeant’s wife, said of him. “He always wanted to serve his country.” Sergeant Morin and his wife met while they were both attending Texas Tech University, while he was dressed as Santa Claus and she was dressed as an elf. Sgt. Moran is also survived by his parents, one brother, one sister, and two young children. “He always stood up for what he thought was right,” his wife said of him days after his death, “He was a fighter. He would never give up.”

The Travis Manion Foundation honored Army Sergeant Steve Morin Jr. through the Character Does Matter program presented at the USNA’s Summer Seminar and USNA STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Camp for rising 11th graders.