Daniel P. Morgan: New Caney Navy Corpsman in Camp Pendleton Brig for High School Bomb Threat

Navelgazing.com

Daniel Morgan: Says lack of sleep caused mental break.

​A Navy corpsman stationed at California's Camp Pendleton will be serving several more months in the base brig after he pleaded guilty in a court-martial to one charge of unauthorized absence and one charge of disorderly conduct.

According to Hair Balls' Orange County sister blog Navelgazing, Daniel Morgan, 22, hails from New Caney, and his parents flew in to his most recent hearing to attest to his good character.

Last September, Camp Pendleton officials discovered writings Morgan left behind before going AWOL. These included fantasies of blowing up San Clemente High School on the first day of classes.

The school was placed on lockdown, and all 3,200 students and 180 staffers were herded out to the football field and then the gym while experts conducted a five-hour search for the "incendiary devices" Morgan claimed to have concealed on the premises.

The bomb threat had to have been extremely expensive: Navelgazing reported that both the Marines and the Navy responded, as did the FBI, the ATF, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, a regional counterterrorism team, the Capistrano Unified School District, a regional school team called SMART and the sheriff's SWAT team and bomb squad.

Morgan turned himself in to military hospital personnel later that same day. The former Eagle Scout has been locked up in the brig ever since, and he has apologized to the Navy, the Marines and the City of San Clemente. He claims to have been "in a deranged state" caused by a lack of sleep when he wrote the threats, paranoid and hearing voices. He said he never intended to carry out any of the threats

Nevertheless, Morgan had four more months tacked onto his time in the brig. He will also forfeit $3,976 in pay and has been busted down to the Navy's lowest pay grade. What's more, the San Clemente Times reports that he will likely be dismissed from the Navy once he serves his time in the brig.

(Hat tip to Jim Sherman.)