COL Morton grew up in Bethel, Ohio. After graduating from the United States Military Academy in 1991, he served in a variety of armored cavalry assignments as a company grade officer in Germany, the United States, and the Balkans.
Earning a master’s degree in history, COL Morton served as an instructor and assistant professor at West Point. After earning his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 2004, COL Morton attended the School of Advanced Warfighting at Quantico before embarking on a series of general staff assignments. He completed a regional fellowship at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies before joining the CSA’s OIF Study Group in 2013.
For three years, COL Morton served as the Assistant Chief of Staff for Strategy and Plans at U.S. Army Central before joining the faculty of the U.S. Army War College where he completed his tour as an associate professor. He is the author of Men on Iron Ponies: The Death and Rebirth of the Modern U. S. Cavalry, Northern Illinois University Press, 2009.