Sgt. Maj. Morton “Duke” Windsor rarely spoke about his distinguished career service in the U.S. Army, which included serving in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. When Windsor and his wife, Erika, were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on March 31, 2025, two of his sons tried to piece together his long record of military service.
“He went to Vietnam in 1968, and about six months later, he was shot in the shoulder and the neck,” said his son, Michael Windsor, who was nine years old at the time. Windsor’s younger brother, Matthew, recalled his father telling a school group that he was one of 112 soldiers who went into combat against a North Vietnamese division—and one of the first to get shot. A stretcher bearer was shot in the chest while carrying Windsor into a helicopter. Yet he made it into the helicopter and off the battlefield.
Michael Windsor remembered visiting his father on weekends at the Fort Devens hospital in Massachusetts. He later moved to West Germany, where he taught ROTC cadets. “When he got out and shipped to Germany,” Michael explained, “he never spoke about [his combat service] again.”
At the funeral service in the Section 85 columbarium, U.S. Army Chaplain (Capt.) Joseph Campbell noted that Windsor “was awarded the Bronze Star and the Purple Heart for having shed his blood in defense of his homeland.”
Campbell spoke about how the couple, who were married for more than 44 years, showed “devotion to five children as loving and caring parents.” He said that Duke would be remembered for his love of fishing, resiliency, discipline “and his commitment to family.” Erika, Campbell said, would be remembered for her devotion as an Army spouse who loved cooking, crocheting, knitting and Germany: “Raised in Viernheim, near Mannheim, Germany, she loved all things German.”
Campbell concluded that the Windsor children would never forget how their mother cared for their father throughout his years with Alzheimer’s disease. She was, he said, “an unwavering witness to marital love and fidelity.”
After the service, Matthew Windsor recalled his father once telling him he wanted to be laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. At the time, Matthew was a high school student in Germany. One morning, his father took him out for a breakfast of coffee and donuts. “It was there that he told me, ‘You know when I go, this is where I want to be buried.’”
