Correspondent photo / Bill Koch ... Morris “Mo” Ray of Youngstown, morning host on WYSU-FM, spent 12 years in the military: four with the Texas National Guard, two with the Air Force Reserve and four in the Army.

Morris Ray

RESIDENCE: Youngstown

OCCUPATION: Retired from General Motors; now a morning radio host on WYSU-FM

YOUNGSTOWN — Morris “Mo” Ray looks fondly on his military experience.

“Every young person should consider it, especially if you want to challenge yourself, get from under Mom and Dad, and see what you’re really made of,” Ray said.

He grew up in Fort Worth, Texas, and graduated in the “bicentennial class” of 1976. He worked in a factory, but after watching “MAS*H” on television and “Apocalypse Now” at the movies, he joined the Texas National Guard.

Being a weekend warrior did not shelter him from trauma.

“A tank unit got some bad ordnance that dated back to Korea. It split like a banana and killed this guy. We were just talking to each other and I hear he’s gone. This is not even a real war and it’s dangerous.”

But he enjoyed the camaraderie and seeing more of the world, including the cityscape of Dallas from a Chinook helicopter and dirt devils in the desert near El Paso.

Ray started working at General Motors in Arlington. After his enlistment concluded, a coworker convinced him to join the Air Force Reserve. He liked that it was just a two-year commitment.

“I worked at billeting. Officers would come, and we would check them in. There was a mini bar like a hotel. It just felt like a job.”

A few years later, the GM plant downsized.

“I was not moving home at 28 years old,” Ray said.

He had always considered full-time military service, so he enlisted in the Army. It was a culture shock.

“The Air Force was laid back, and the Army is the Army. I got there in civilian clothes and walked in. The first thing they said was, ‘Did you forget how to report, soldier?'” Most recruits were 18 to 20 years old, “so I was the old guy,” Ray joked.

His Military Occupational Specialty was supposed to be working on missiles in Germany. However, former President Ronald Reagan and former Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev were negotiating an end to the Cold War, and many programs were canceled.

Instead he became a “brace technician,” learning to create back braces and arch supports to help injured soldiers and veterans. He underwent training at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, Texas, and an apprenticeship at Fort Sill in Lawton, Oklahoma. He said that because of artillery training, he would hear thunder on a sunny day.

He was transferred to Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina. It hosts the 82nd Airborne, so Ray often made splints for injured parachute jumpers. One of his fondest memories was fitting an ankle-foot orthosis for an officer’s 4-year-old son, allowing him to walk for the first time.

“This major said, ‘There you go, Specialist. Look what you did.'”

Ray liked to stay busy, so in his free time he worked at a record store. He enjoyed interacting with customers and said he could remember the location of every record and cassette.

He said the increased presence of women in the military improved the quality of the unit. It was an adjustment, like when their marching cadences contained crude language. Ray was concerned a Mormon woman from Utah might be offended until she said she was raised with four brothers.

“I would have gone to battle with her. Other guys would run before she ever would.”

In 1991, his enlistment was extended four months because of the Gulf War.

“Planes were flying in and out like crazy. I thought I might go to Kuwait, but they said I was needed here to patch them up when they come back,” Ray said.

Fortunately, Operation Desert Storm ended quickly.

After the Army, he returned to GM, assembling El Caminos, Cutlasses, Monte Carlos and Regals. But the plant was again struggling and he accepted an incentive to transfer north to Lordstown.

Ray was a fan of talk radio and often called WKBN hosts Robert Mangino, Ron Verb and Dan Rivers. Rivers liked to hire interesting people, including a caller with the nickname “Homey Cheese.” He asked Ray if he wanted to try hosting a show.

Ray started with one hour on Sunday evening, then expanded to Saturday afternoon. He sometimes filled in for Verb.

“I loved it. I’m a news junkie and a trivia person so anything someone brought up, I knew something about it.”

Until his retirement from GM in 2006, he often ended his shift and drove straight to the studio.

As politics became more toxic, it started to be less fun.

“My thing was to look for common ground but more and more there wasn’t any.”

He stopped working for WKBN Radio in 2022.

Just a few months later, he attended a listener appreciation event for WYSU, where he met Gary Sexton and other employees. This culminated in an offer to become the station’s morning host.

Ray said the atmosphere is more relaxed than corporate radio.

“People don’t tell you what to do. They ask.”

He gets up at 4:45 a.m. and arrives at the station early enough to pick out promos and public service announcements and review the weather. By 9 a.m., his shift is done.

“As a retired guy, I love it.”

When he is not working, he enjoys gardening and walking his dog Jazz.

“He has the intelligence of a Border Collie and the stubbornness of a Corgi. A friend calls him a low rider because he’s so close to the ground,” Ray said.

He said he loves Mill Creek Park, and being in nature refreshes him.

“I can go out there and see a squirrel, a turkey, a hawk, whatever. It calms you down.”