A Lawrence native who spent nearly a year fighting fires in Iraq as a private contractor has returned home with concerns about the war and the future of U.S. involvement there.

“It’s a mess,” said Rick Morris, summing up his take on the situation.

Insurgents have stepped up their attacks, lately targeting Iraqi police. Entire cities, such as Fallujah, have been given up to the insurgents. The United States doesn’t have enough troops to secure the entire country, Morris said.

“I think we made a mistake going in there,” he said of President Bush’s decision in March 2003 to invade Iraq and oust Saddam Hussein. “I think Bush Jr. wanted to do what Bush Sr. didn’t.”

Morris, 51, ended his career in the summer of 2003 as a firefighter in the Air Force and signed on as a contractor with Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root. He was sent to Iraq as a firefighter and became the chief of American firefighters in Baghdad’s Green Zone, the fortified sector where many Americans live and work and where the former Coalition Provisional Authority had its headquarters. He also supervised firefighters in other nearby cities.

A 1971 Lawrence High School graduate, Morris stayed in Iraq until last spring, when he asked for a transfer and was sent to an American air base in Turkey, where he stayed until returning to the United States about a month ago. He now lives in Knob Noster, Mo., but was in Lawrence recently visiting friends.

A dispute with a superior and a close call with a 127 mm rocket convinced Morris it was time to leave Iraq, he said.

The dispute arose when Morris was told not to respond to calls to help people who were wounded in bombings, mortar and rocket attacks. The Green Zone frequently received mortar and rocket attacks, and car bombs often exploded outside its gates. Morris said he considered his fire department’s job to include sending medics to help the injured, just as many American fire departments do.

Lawrence native Rick Morris recently returned to the United States after serving as chief of American firefighters in Baghdad, Iraq. He is shown with his grandson Austin Morris, age 2, last week at a friend's house in Lawrence.

The “close call” came when a rocket landed about 70 feet from him as he stood behind a stack of cases containing bottled water.

“Those cases were just shredded,” said Morris, who was not injured. “I said, ‘I can’t deal with this.’ That’s when I said I wanted a transfer.”

Morris was sent to work at Incirlik Air Base in Turkey just in time to prepare for Bush’s visit and the June NATO summit.

As for Iraq, the United States doesn’t have enough troops to secure the country and its borders and protect oil pipelines, Morris said.

“That’s a big country and our military can’t be everywhere,” Morris said. “You don’t know who the enemy is. We really need to get the Iraqi army and police trained and ready.”

Although he said he thinks most Iraqis still want U.S. help, he also thinks the country would be divided among the Sunni, Shiite and Kurdish groups without it. And after decades of Saddam’s dictatorial rule, Iraqis don’t understand the concepts of democracy and self rule.

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Morris commended U.S. soldiers and Marines, although he said Reserves and National Guardsmen were getting tired.

“These kids are warriors,” Morris said. “They are hard-charging fighters and they don’t back down.”

Morris also was pleased with his own work and that of the firefighters under him. Now he wants to relax and look for job as a small town fire chief.

“I don’t need a lot of action,” Morris said. “I’ve had plenty.”