Decorated Military Officer Was A Master Parachutists

ANN has learned U.S. Army Lt. General Harold Gregory "Hal" Moore, Jr. has Gone West. Among his many assignments during his military career, Moore volunteered for a special unit testing experimental parachutes.

According to Wikipedia, Moore initially applied for the airborne jump school at Fort Benning. He was not selected, and was instead assigned to the three week jump school held at the 11th Airborne Division in Tokyo, Japan. His first assignment out of jump school was with the 187th Glider Infantry Regiment at Camp Crawford near Sapporo, Japan from 1945 until 1948.

After a seven-month stint as company commander, he was assigned as Camp Crawford's construction officer and responsible for all of the construction improvements being made at the camp. In June 1948 he was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne Division, at Fort Bragg. He volunteered to join the Airborne Test Section, a special unit testing experimental parachutes, and he made the first of some 150 jumps with the section over the next two years on November 17, 1948.

Over the course of his career, he became a master parachutist with over 300 jumps.

Moore served in the Army through the Vietnam War. He was a recipient of the Distinguished Service Cross, and was the first of his West Point class (1945) to be promoted to brigadier general, major general, and lieutenant general.

He was the co-author of the book “We Were Soldiers Once… and Young: Ia Drang – The Battle That Changed the War in Vietnam” with Joe Galloway.

Moore died February 10th just shy of his 95th birthday. The circumstances of his death were not reported.

(Public Domain image)

FMI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Moore