Most lawyers do their fighting in courtrooms, but not Air Force Maj. Grady “Jed” Morton, 45, of Atlanta.
He’s a highly-decorated warrior, who flew 63 combat missions in the first Gulf War and later enforcing the no-fly zone over Iraq. And he’s fought ground battles in Afghanistan, too, as well as not-so-deadly ones in military courtrooms there.
And when he’s not flying for the Air Force or lawyering for the military or his own clients in his private practice, he’s piloting giant 777s for Delta Air Lines, which is his full-time job.
He went to work for Delta in 1997 while technically still in the Air Force before becoming a “weekend” warrior flying F-16s for the Indiana National Guard.
But by 2000, with war seemingly over, he resigned from the Guard and joined the inactive reserves. His wife, Jeanne, is a lawyer, so Morton enrolled in law school at Georgia State.
In 2007, he was notified by the Air Force Reserve he would be discharged unless he found a “real” job with a unit.
“That’s when it hit me that I really enjoyed many aspects of the military and didn’t want to be completely discharged,” he says. “I had been out of flying too long and wasn’t really interested in flying in the military anymore anyway.”
Soon he was a reservist Air Force lawyer in the Judge Advocate General’s Corps and opening his own private practice.
His JAG job requires active duty for a total of 30 days a year, which gives him time for his own practice and also Delta. His on-call status is a full-time job, requiring one or two overseas flights, per month.
Because Delta “is extremely supportive” of its military employees, he has no trouble wearing multiple hats and helmets.
Which is good, because last year he volunteered for active duty and the Air Force sent him to Afghanistan, where Morton figured his fighting would be in courtrooms.
But the military works in mysterious ways. Instead he was ordered to take weapons training, a medic’s course and practice basic infantry skills.
Soon after arriving in Afghanistan, he was sent “outside the wire” on combat missions. Military records say in one case, the 40 men he was with were ambushed in a six-hour battle.
One report says he “displayed extreme courage under fire” and suppressed Afghan insurgents with an M4 carbine. Another says no Americans were killed but “dozens of enemy fighters” were.
Documents also show that Morton was awarded two medals for heroism, the Bronze Star and the Army’s Combat Action Badge, which is rarely given to warriors in other branches.
Rather than going back to lawyering, he volunteered to stay in “outside the wire” operations.
That might seem like a lot to live up to for his son, Matt, and daughter, Molly. But people who’ve known him his whole life, like Jerry Dyar, 67, Veterans Affairs Officer for Oconee County, S.C., says he suspects Morton is motivated by his son-in-law the Ranger.
So is he nuts?
“No, that’s just him,” Dyar said. “He’s a patriot.”
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