Following family tradition, West Orange’s Morancie promoted to captain

WEST ORANGE, NJ — Former West Orange resident and U.S. Army officer Stephen Morancie was promoted from first lieutenant to captain on May 2. A 2014 graduate of West Orange High School, where he was a member of the inaugural squadron of Air Force JROTC, Morancie has served four years in the Army, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2019. His awards include the Army Commendation Medal, with C device and two bronze oak leaf clusters; the Combat Action Badge; and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal, one star. 

Morancie follows a West Orange family military tradition of six generations, begun by his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Dockery, an Irish immigrant who fought in the American Civil War. During World War II, Morancie’s great-great-uncle, Cpl. John B. “Jack” Dockery, namesake of Dockery Drive in West Orange, was killed in action in Sicily. Morancie recently had the honor of serving in the same infantry division in which his great-great-uncle gave his life.

  JROTC, U.S. Armed Forces, West Orange High School