Vale, LTG Moore
LTG Harold Gregory “Hal” Moore, Jr. (USMA,1945) passed away in his sleep 10 February 2017 at the ripe old age of 94, just three days before his 95th birthday– which is today.
As noted by West Point, he’d been offered an appointment to the Naval Academy by his Congressman, but Moore was set on going Army and asked if said lawmaker would swap out that seagoing academy slot for an extra West Point appointment. Impressed with Moore the Congressman agreed. A World War II vet, he reported to West Point for “Reception Day” 15 July 1942 and went on to qualify expert on the M1, graduating on an accelerated schedule (there was a war on) in slightly less than three years, commissioning 5 June 1945.
A master parachutist with over 300 jumps, he served in Korea then went back to West Point to teach infantry tactics– a young H. Norman Schwarzkopf was one of his students. At the time, he was keenly interested in what the French were doing wrong in Indochina. He completed staff training assignments including a stint at the Naval War College where his Annapolis story no doubt was well received.
Notably, Moore was first in his class to be promoted to Brigadier General, Major General, and Lieutenant General, but we are getting ahead of ourselves.
You likely already know this, but at the Battle of Ia Drang, then-Lt.Col Moore led the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry (“Custer’s Unit”) of the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division (Airmobile) in an epic week-long engagement with correspondent Joe Galloway on hand. Their collective retelling of the events of that engagement is recorded in history in “We Were Soldiers Once…and Young.”
After Vietnam, Moore helped shape the peacetime all-volunteer Army that we have today as Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, retiring 1 August 1977, some 35 years and two weeks after that first day at ‘The Point.
Garry Owen, Sir.