Aleksandr Morosky - Fellow

Growing up in Norwich, Connecticut, Aleksandr Morosky dreamed of visiting Europe. He didn’t want to stick around and go to college or take at job at the nearby casino where many of his friends worked.

So, after high school, Morosky enlisted in the Army and left for basic training in Georgia. Before long, he was serving as an infantryman in Germany and then in Kosovo as part of an international peacekeeping force there. Morosky’s platoon guarded a Serbian town surrounded by ethnic Albanian towns. “It was an austere, downrange deployed lifestyle,” Morosky says of the six-month stint. The work – essentially serving as the town’s police, fire, and ambulance services – was hard and there was no running water, hot showers, or hot food.

While Morosky was in Germany again for a year of training, the 9/11 attacks unfolded. Morosky decided afterward to enlist for another three years. He felt the call and he liked the lifestyle, camaraderie, and travel.

At the start of the Iraq War in 2003, Morosky deployed to the country with the Army’s 101st Airborne. They waged battles in various cities, did house-to-house clearance missions, patrolled, and carried out various civil projects such as keeping public markets operating and organizing the country’s first free election in memory.

When Morosky deployed to Iraq for his second tour in 2005, things had changed dramatically. Now, he spent his time in a large forward operating base isolated from the public. Improvised explosive devices and snipers were common. “It was unusual that something didn’t explode during a day of patrolling,” Morosky recalls.

During that second tour, three of Morosky’s 18 platoon mates died. Nine months into the tour, a vehicle Morosky was riding in snagged a tripwire that set off an explosive device. Along with three others, Morosky was injured. His left arm was shattered and his back and neck damaged.

Morosky left the Army after seven years and went to college to study political science, making the honor roll at the University of Connecticut. After having witnessed first-hand a variety of dysfunctional governments, Morsoky was interested in comparing world governments. “Politics isn’t everything, but it affects every other subject,” he says of his focus. “You get to learn about everything when you’re in politics.”

After doing a semester-long internship in the district offices of Rep. Joe Courtney of Connecticut, Morosky caught the politics bug even worse. That’s where the Wounded Warrior Program came in. As a fellow in the district office of Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, Morosky enjoys assisting veteran constituents. He looks forward to having more input into the office’s outreach work and maybe someday lobbying for veterans issues.