Bob Moore is a modest, soft-spoken man who rarely talks about his service in Vietnam — let alone his Silver Star, which he received more than four decades late.
But he has no hesitation about pulling up his left pants leg in public at the Atlanta History Center to show the deep scars hot steel can leave in human flesh, even after undergoing lots of corrective surgery.
It was a booby-trap explosion on July 13, 1969 that not only wounded Moore but killed Cpl. Byron R. Hall of Henagar, Ala., and blew both legs off another. After finishing that second tour, Moore, now 68, went back to college and earned a degree.
A few years ago, Moore read a story in The Atlanta Journal Constitution about Clarence Catchings, then a top officer at Ft. MacPherson and Ft. Gillem. And he remembered that his company commander in Vietnam, Capt. Bob Catchings, often talked about his big-shot brother.
So he called the now-closed military base, found out he was right and was told how to get in touch with the former captain, 72, who now runs a health ministry in Donalsonville, whom he called, just to reminisce.
In the course of their talk, Catchings asked Moore if he’d received his medal and was angered he hadn’t because it had been approved up the chain of command.
Soon, Ross Berry, former CEO of an Alabama hospital and a mutual friend of Moore’s and Rep. Phil Gingrey, D-Ga., got wind of the situation and discussed it with the congressman, who took immediate action to remedy the error — steps only a federal lawmaker can take.
Moore was stunned to tears on June 6, 2012, to learn he’d get the Silver Star, the third highest award for valor behind the Medal of Honor and the Distinguished Service Cross.
“After negotiating several booby traps successfully with no light at night in a heavily wooded area, a booby trap was tripped,” Catchings recalls. “We had one killed and 11 wounded. In the midst of this, Bob, also wounded, continued to direct his platoon. He operated tremendously. I put him in for the medal.”
Half way through his first tour, as an enlisted man, Moore was ordered to report to Ft. Benning for officers’ candidate school, then sent back to Vietnam as a 2nd lieutenant.
Catchings, an African-American, says Moore may not have lost his knee except that his boss, the battalion commander, had “racial issues” and ordered the men into a “very dangerous area.”
Moore was receiving medical treatment when told he’d been put up for the medal but soon forgot all about it.
Gingrey says Moore “is a very modest individual,” and Steve Davis, an executive with Mag Mutual, says his friend hardly mentioned his wound and convalescence.
Gingrey says “it was truly an honor to help deliver 2nd Lt. Moore his well-deserved Silver Star” and says his office “will always be open to heroes like him should they need my assistance.”
With retirement near, Moore says he’s now going to fight for the injured warriors.
“Post traumatic stress disorder is going to be a big problem,” he says. “I want to help in any way I can.”
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