Jamesburg councilman headed for tour of duty in Iraq Morales leaves with blessings, prayers of his community BY CHRISTINE GRIMALDI Staff Writer For years, he's served his hometown; now he must serve his country.Jamesburg Borough Councilman Carlos Morales, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Air Force, will soon be deployed to Iraq. His tour of duty will begin Sept. 18. Part of a group moving in to relieve military personnel who have been in Iraq for the past six months, Morales said his primary role will be "assuring the survivability" of all coalition forces within a given base, though he is not permitted to disclose the location. He said he expects to serve for about four months, but the tour will not exceed six months. "We're going to be thinking about him all the time," Mayor Anthony LaMantia said, adding that he and Morales have been friends for years. "We wish him well the whole time." Borough voters first elected Morales, a Democrat, in 2002, and this year he began his second three-year term on the council. He has previously volunteered for the borough fire department and EMS. He said he would have to discuss his return to Jamesburg civil service with the mayor and council to "figure out what is in the best interest of the town." He did note a state civil service statute that allows military personnel to maintain their employment while deployed. "As of right now, in my eyes, he's in the military, he's serving his country, his seat's still going to be there," LaMantia said. He said that he will keep Morales updated on the municipality via e-mail. In a war increasingly criticized by Democrats, Morales said he does not view his duty as a political issue. "I look at it that freedom is not free, and sometimes people have to make sacrifices for people to be happy. It's a choice, my choice," he said. Morales has upheld such ideals since he was a teenager. Growing up in Elizabeth, the high school graduate joined the Army in 1988 because of the doors service can open. "If you didn't go to college, you had really no other options," he said. He attended Middlesex County College, Edison, for a year-and-a-half and is working on his bachelor's degree through Thomas Edison State College, Trenton. Morales served in the Army for over 16 years and transferred to the Air Force two years ago. In 1991, he served in Kuwait during Operation Desert Storm. He is also a full-time state national guardsman. He has been on active duty for both the Air Force and National Guard since May 2004. Over the years, Morales has filled military-related roles for government agencies at all levels. His full-time job since 1996 has been with the Middlesex County Hazardous Materials Unit. Since 2004, he has worked to provide homeland security through the state Department of Veterans Affairs. "We have a task force that's assigned to the nuclear plants in the state of New Jersey, which is a 24-hour operation, seven days a week," he said. Morales previously worked for the federal National Guard Bureau for four years for the 21st Civilian Support Team Weapons of Mass Destruction Unit. In the Air Force, Morales is involved with emergency management, and is responsible for responding to natural disasters as well as nuclear, chemical and biological incidents. He also trains Air Force personnel on how to prepare for and mitigate those types of warfare. He spent the past month in Michigan, preparing for duty. Morales has lived in Jamesburg since 1989. He has a wife, Francine, who is Jamesburg-born and raised, and two children, Devin, 16, and 9-year-old Myriah.