World War II Veteran. Moore was stationed at Pearl Harbor early in 1942, following the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack. As an Army enlistee, he was assigned to the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron and served as a radio Operator on Admiral Chester W. Nimitz aircraft throughout the war.
Following the war, Moore, a native of Harrisburg, PA, completed his education at the University of California, Berkley campus. He returned east to New Jersey where he began a career with RCA. Moore and his wife Carol retired to Southport in 1980.
Obituary, Wilmington Star-News:
James Draden Moore, 92, of Wilmington, passed away on Thursday, March 14, 2013, at his home. Mr. Moore was born April 26, 1920, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of the late James Draden Moore and Pearl Brockley Moore. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and was a veteran of the US Army Air Corp. Mr. Moore was a retired district manager with RCA in Atlanta and had worked for over 30 years on Bald Head Island in real estate sales and marketing. He was preceded in death by a sister Doris Moore Thomas.
Surviving is his wife Carol Saulsbury Moore of the home; a son James Draden Moore of Marietta, GA; three daughters Anne Moore Bonnefant and husband Patrick of France, Libby Moore Schaffer and husband Todd of Wilmington, and Martha Moore Bumgarner of Morganton; a sister Nancy Moore Blence of Philidelphia, PA; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Southport with Reverend Barry Kubler officiating. A reception will follow at the church.
Old clip from The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.), March 7, 1944 –
Sgt. Moore Tells of Experiences
Hanover Flier Home First Time in Nearly Three Years of Service – Addresses Rotary Club.
One of the first “friends” he looked for upon his arrival home after 20 months of winging his way about the islands of the Pacific from “Frisco to Australia” was the iron dog in the Hanover square. Sgt. J. Draden Moore told a representative of The Evening Sun at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Moore, 22 West Walnut street, today.
Sgt. Moore arrived home last week to spend a brief furlough, the first since he entered the service nearly three years ago. Within the next several days he is to leave again for the Central Pacific area, where he helps carry vital supplies to the combat areas and assists in removing wounded Yanks from the battle zones.
“When you meet a Hanover boy outside the country, the conversation always seems to get around to the iron dog on the square,” the 23-year-old airman said. “The last man to leave Hanover is always asked whether or not the iron dog is still there. I was certainly glad to see him when I got back.”
Met Hanoverians in Hawaii
Only in Hawaii, where the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron, of which he is a member, was based, did Sgt. Moore meet any boys from home. There he encountered Lt. Herbert P. Rutters, Third street, a bomber pilot; Sgt. Anthony G. Topper, North street, McSherrystown and Sgt. Charles Clifton Smith, Sixth street, McSherrystown.
Lt. Rutters was on his way from the United States to Australia when Sgt. Moore just back from a mission out over the Pacific, met him in the Post Exchange at Hickam Field. Sgts. Topper and Smith are engaged in clerical work at Hickam Field. “Whenever I get in there I drop around to have a gabfest with them,” Sgt. Moore asserted.
Draden Moore, who half a dozen years ago was “Ace” Moore, a big center on the Hanover High school basketball team, is now a radio operator assigned to the staff ship of the Seventh Air Force, which covers the Pacific Area west of the United States and east of the Solomons.
His First Trip Home
When high ranking Army or Navy officials wish to fly to inspect any of the newly-taken Pacific bases or to confer with officials in Washington, they make the trips in the staff ship. It was one of these trips which enabled Sgt. Moore to make his first visit home in uniform. The plane to which he is assigned recently brought two high Army officials from the Central Pacific to Washington. While they were transacting their business in the capital, the Hanover man was permitted to come to his home here.
When not engaged in transporting Army and Navy officials, the big four-engined LB-30 to which Sgt. Moore is assigned and other planes of the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron are busy rushing vital materials – including blood plasma and shells – to areas in which the Yanks are battling the Japs.
Visited Many Islands
“I don’t believe there is an island with an American or British-held air base between California and Australia that we haven’t visited,” Sgt. Moore said. His ship carried supplies to Guadalcanal, Midway and Tarawa and helped evacuate the wounded.
“We usually land as soon as a beach head has been established and an air field is taken,” Sgt. Moore said. “On our first trip over the air field we fly low to let the medics on the ground know we are coming in. By the time we touch the ground, they have the wounded there waiting for us. They are placed aboard and we take off immediately.”
Sgt. Moore has had a number of close calls but isn’t inclined to talk about them. He has been under bombing attack a number of times, sweating it out in fox holes. On one occasion, in the New Hebrides, he and his navigator slept through a bombing attack with an antiaircraft gun outside their hut never disturbing them.
“We had just concluded a three-day plane trip and were too tired to be disturbed by anything,” Sgt. Moore said. Usually, the radio operator revealed, the members of his crew are out on a mission for eight or nine days, after which they spend two days at their base, resting while the ship is being reconditioned.
Sgt. Moore was surprised to learn the attitude of the folks at home regarding the war in the Pacific. Most people, he said, seem to believe the United States is making great headway against the Japs and that victory is not far away. The men out there know that the fight ahead is hard and long and that the Nips haven’t yet been hit where it hurts.
Addresses Rotary Club
Sgt. Moore has also been in a position to learn the way the man on the fighting front feels about matters at home. He revealed some of their reactions when he appeared as guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary club held last night in the Hotel Richard McAllister.
Sgt. Moore told the clubmen that the troops in the Pacific area do not appear to care whether or not they are given an opportunity to vote. They would prefer to have the wrangling at home done away with in order that the Nation may give all its attention to winning the war.
The men on the islands of the Pacific who have seen their buddies pay the supreme sacrifice feel nothing but bitterness for the strikers at home, Sgt. Moore told the clubmen. He said that any soldier on the battle fronts would gladly change places with the men going out on strike, feeling that strikers would gladly go back to their jobs after serving for 30 days under conditions which the fighting Yanks accept without complaint.
Japanese Are Tricky
The tricky Japanese fighter should not be underestimated, the Rotarians heard. Sgt. Moore gave several examples of fanatical fighting of the little yellow man. The present crop of the Nipponese fighters could be compared, the speaker said, with American fliers in their second stage of training, but in the earlier days of the war, the Jap pilots were well trained and capable.
Sgt. Moore displayed a number of souvenirs obtained by him on various Pacific battlefields. Among them were Japanese hand grenades, bayonets and other interesting items.
Wears Decorations
On his tunic, the Hanover radio operator wears a number of decorations. Among them is the Air Medal, pinned upon his chest last August by Admiral Nimitz. He has the Asiatic Pacific campaign ribbon, the pre-Pearl Harbor ribbon, the American Defense ribbon for coastal patrol and the Good Conduct ribbon.
Sgt. Moore has been in the Air Corps since August, 1941. After being graduated from high school here, he attended Indiana State Teachers’ college for one year, and then was employed for a year in a Hanover Shoe store in Washington.
Sgt. Moore trained at Keesler Field, Miss.; Scott Field, Ill., and Morrison Field, Fla. Then he was sent to the West Coast and from there to Hawaii. For the past 20 months he has been a member of 19th Troop Transport Squadron.
While Sgt. Moore enjoys his work, has seen much of the world and has come in personal contact with some of the major figures of World War II, he, like many other boys, hopes that his next visit home “will be for good.” He hopes, too, that the iron dog will still be on the square.
Following the war, Moore, a native of Harrisburg, PA, completed his education at the University of California, Berkley campus. He returned east to New Jersey where he began a career with RCA. Moore and his wife Carol retired to Southport in 1980.
Obituary, Wilmington Star-News:
James Draden Moore, 92, of Wilmington, passed away on Thursday, March 14, 2013, at his home. Mr. Moore was born April 26, 1920, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of the late James Draden Moore and Pearl Brockley Moore. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and was a veteran of the US Army Air Corp. Mr. Moore was a retired district manager with RCA in Atlanta and had worked for over 30 years on Bald Head Island in real estate sales and marketing. He was preceded in death by a sister Doris Moore Thomas.
Surviving is his wife Carol Saulsbury Moore of the home; a son James Draden Moore of Marietta, GA; three daughters Anne Moore Bonnefant and husband Patrick of France, Libby Moore Schaffer and husband Todd of Wilmington, and Martha Moore Bumgarner of Morganton; a sister Nancy Moore Blence of Philidelphia, PA; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Southport with Reverend Barry Kubler officiating. A reception will follow at the church.
Old clip from The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.), March 7, 1944 –
Sgt. Moore Tells of Experiences
Hanover Flier Home First Time in Nearly Three Years of Service – Addresses Rotary Club.
One of the first “friends” he looked for upon his arrival home after 20 months of winging his way about the islands of the Pacific from “Frisco to Australia” was the iron dog in the Hanover square. Sgt. J. Draden Moore told a representative of The Evening Sun at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Moore, 22 West Walnut street, today.
Sgt. Moore arrived home last week to spend a brief furlough, the first since he entered the service nearly three years ago. Within the next several days he is to leave again for the Central Pacific area, where he helps carry vital supplies to the combat areas and assists in removing wounded Yanks from the battle zones.
“When you meet a Hanover boy outside the country, the conversation always seems to get around to the iron dog on the square,” the 23-year-old airman said. “The last man to leave Hanover is always asked whether or not the iron dog is still there. I was certainly glad to see him when I got back.”
Met Hanoverians in Hawaii
Only in Hawaii, where the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron, of which he is a member, was based, did Sgt. Moore meet any boys from home. There he encountered Lt. Herbert P. Rutters, Third street, a bomber pilot; Sgt. Anthony G. Topper, North street, McSherrystown and Sgt. Charles Clifton Smith, Sixth street, McSherrystown.
Lt. Rutters was on his way from the United States to Australia when Sgt. Moore just back from a mission out over the Pacific, met him in the Post Exchange at Hickam Field. Sgts. Topper and Smith are engaged in clerical work at Hickam Field. “Whenever I get in there I drop around to have a gabfest with them,” Sgt. Moore asserted.
Draden Moore, who half a dozen years ago was “Ace” Moore, a big center on the Hanover High school basketball team, is now a radio operator assigned to the staff ship of the Seventh Air Force, which covers the Pacific Area west of the United States and east of the Solomons.
His First Trip Home
When high ranking Army or Navy officials wish to fly to inspect any of the newly-taken Pacific bases or to confer with officials in Washington, they make the trips in the staff ship. It was one of these trips which enabled Sgt. Moore to make his first visit home in uniform. The plane to which he is assigned recently brought two high Army officials from the Central Pacific to Washington. While they were transacting their business in the capital, the Hanover man was permitted to come to his home here.
When not engaged in transporting Army and Navy officials, the big four-engined LB-30 to which Sgt. Moore is assigned and other planes of the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron are busy rushing vital materials – including blood plasma and shells – to areas in which the Yanks are battling the Japs.
Visited Many Islands
“I don’t believe there is an island with an American or British-held air base between California and Australia that we haven’t visited,” Sgt. Moore said. His ship carried supplies to Guadalcanal, Midway and Tarawa and helped evacuate the wounded.
“We usually land as soon as a beach head has been established and an air field is taken,” Sgt. Moore said. “On our first trip over the air field we fly low to let the medics on the ground know we are coming in. By the time we touch the ground, they have the wounded there waiting for us. They are placed aboard and we take off immediately.”
Sgt. Moore has had a number of close calls but isn’t inclined to talk about them. He has been under bombing attack a number of times, sweating it out in fox holes. On one occasion, in the New Hebrides, he and his navigator slept through a bombing attack with an antiaircraft gun outside their hut never disturbing them.
“We had just concluded a three-day plane trip and were too tired to be disturbed by anything,” Sgt. Moore said. Usually, the radio operator revealed, the members of his crew are out on a mission for eight or nine days, after which they spend two days at their base, resting while the ship is being reconditioned.
Sgt. Moore was surprised to learn the attitude of the folks at home regarding the war in the Pacific. Most people, he said, seem to believe the United States is making great headway against the Japs and that victory is not far away. The men out there know that the fight ahead is hard and long and that the Nips haven’t yet been hit where it hurts.
Addresses Rotary Club
Sgt. Moore has also been in a position to learn the way the man on the fighting front feels about matters at home. He revealed some of their reactions when he appeared as guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary club held last night in the Hotel Richard McAllister.
Sgt. Moore told the clubmen that the troops in the Pacific area do not appear to care whether or not they are given an opportunity to vote. They would prefer to have the wrangling at home done away with in order that the Nation may give all its attention to winning the war.
The men on the islands of the Pacific who have seen their buddies pay the supreme sacrifice feel nothing but bitterness for the strikers at home, Sgt. Moore told the clubmen. He said that any soldier on the battle fronts would gladly change places with the men going out on strike, feeling that strikers would gladly go back to their jobs after serving for 30 days under conditions which the fighting Yanks accept without complaint.
Japanese Are Tricky
The tricky Japanese fighter should not be underestimated, the Rotarians heard. Sgt. Moore gave several examples of fanatical fighting of the little yellow man. The present crop of the Nipponese fighters could be compared, the speaker said, with American fliers in their second stage of training, but in the earlier days of the war, the Jap pilots were well trained and capable.
Sgt. Moore displayed a number of souvenirs obtained by him on various Pacific battlefields. Among them were Japanese hand grenades, bayonets and other interesting items.
Wears Decorations
On his tunic, the Hanover radio operator wears a number of decorations. Among them is the Air Medal, pinned upon his chest last August by Admiral Nimitz. He has the Asiatic Pacific campaign ribbon, the pre-Pearl Harbor ribbon, the American Defense ribbon for coastal patrol and the Good Conduct ribbon.
Sgt. Moore has been in the Air Corps since August, 1941. After being graduated from high school here, he attended Indiana State Teachers’ college for one year, and then was employed for a year in a Hanover Shoe store in Washington.
Sgt. Moore trained at Keesler Field, Miss.; Scott Field, Ill., and Morrison Field, Fla. Then he was sent to the West Coast and from there to Hawaii. For the past 20 months he has been a member of 19th Troop Transport Squadron.
While Sgt. Moore enjoys his work, has seen much of the world and has come in personal contact with some of the major figures of World War II, he, like many other boys, hopes that his next visit home “will be for good.” He hopes, too, that the iron dog will still be on the square.
World War II Veteran. Moore was stationed at Pearl Harbor early in 1942, following the December 7, 1941 Japanese attack. As an Army enlistee, he was assigned to the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron and served as a radio Operator on Admiral Chester W. Nimitz aircraft throughout the war.
Following the war, Moore, a native of Harrisburg, PA, completed his education at the University of California, Berkley campus. He returned east to New Jersey where he began a career with RCA. Moore and his wife Carol retired to Southport in 1980.
Obituary, Wilmington Star-News:
James Draden Moore, 92, of Wilmington, passed away on Thursday, March 14, 2013, at his home. Mr. Moore was born April 26, 1920, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of the late James Draden Moore and Pearl Brockley Moore. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and was a veteran of the US Army Air Corp. Mr. Moore was a retired district manager with RCA in Atlanta and had worked for over 30 years on Bald Head Island in real estate sales and marketing. He was preceded in death by a sister Doris Moore Thomas.
Surviving is his wife Carol Saulsbury Moore of the home; a son James Draden Moore of Marietta, GA; three daughters Anne Moore Bonnefant and husband Patrick of France, Libby Moore Schaffer and husband Todd of Wilmington, and Martha Moore Bumgarner of Morganton; a sister Nancy Moore Blence of Philidelphia, PA; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Southport with Reverend Barry Kubler officiating. A reception will follow at the church.
Old clip from The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.), March 7, 1944 –
Sgt. Moore Tells of Experiences
Hanover Flier Home First Time in Nearly Three Years of Service – Addresses Rotary Club.
One of the first “friends” he looked for upon his arrival home after 20 months of winging his way about the islands of the Pacific from “Frisco to Australia” was the iron dog in the Hanover square. Sgt. J. Draden Moore told a representative of The Evening Sun at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Moore, 22 West Walnut street, today.
Sgt. Moore arrived home last week to spend a brief furlough, the first since he entered the service nearly three years ago. Within the next several days he is to leave again for the Central Pacific area, where he helps carry vital supplies to the combat areas and assists in removing wounded Yanks from the battle zones.
“When you meet a Hanover boy outside the country, the conversation always seems to get around to the iron dog on the square,” the 23-year-old airman said. “The last man to leave Hanover is always asked whether or not the iron dog is still there. I was certainly glad to see him when I got back.”
Met Hanoverians in Hawaii
Only in Hawaii, where the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron, of which he is a member, was based, did Sgt. Moore meet any boys from home. There he encountered Lt. Herbert P. Rutters, Third street, a bomber pilot; Sgt. Anthony G. Topper, North street, McSherrystown and Sgt. Charles Clifton Smith, Sixth street, McSherrystown.
Lt. Rutters was on his way from the United States to Australia when Sgt. Moore just back from a mission out over the Pacific, met him in the Post Exchange at Hickam Field. Sgts. Topper and Smith are engaged in clerical work at Hickam Field. “Whenever I get in there I drop around to have a gabfest with them,” Sgt. Moore asserted.
Draden Moore, who half a dozen years ago was “Ace” Moore, a big center on the Hanover High school basketball team, is now a radio operator assigned to the staff ship of the Seventh Air Force, which covers the Pacific Area west of the United States and east of the Solomons.
His First Trip Home
When high ranking Army or Navy officials wish to fly to inspect any of the newly-taken Pacific bases or to confer with officials in Washington, they make the trips in the staff ship. It was one of these trips which enabled Sgt. Moore to make his first visit home in uniform. The plane to which he is assigned recently brought two high Army officials from the Central Pacific to Washington. While they were transacting their business in the capital, the Hanover man was permitted to come to his home here.
When not engaged in transporting Army and Navy officials, the big four-engined LB-30 to which Sgt. Moore is assigned and other planes of the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron are busy rushing vital materials – including blood plasma and shells – to areas in which the Yanks are battling the Japs.
Visited Many Islands
“I don’t believe there is an island with an American or British-held air base between California and Australia that we haven’t visited,” Sgt. Moore said. His ship carried supplies to Guadalcanal, Midway and Tarawa and helped evacuate the wounded.
“We usually land as soon as a beach head has been established and an air field is taken,” Sgt. Moore said. “On our first trip over the air field we fly low to let the medics on the ground know we are coming in. By the time we touch the ground, they have the wounded there waiting for us. They are placed aboard and we take off immediately.”
Sgt. Moore has had a number of close calls but isn’t inclined to talk about them. He has been under bombing attack a number of times, sweating it out in fox holes. On one occasion, in the New Hebrides, he and his navigator slept through a bombing attack with an antiaircraft gun outside their hut never disturbing them.
“We had just concluded a three-day plane trip and were too tired to be disturbed by anything,” Sgt. Moore said. Usually, the radio operator revealed, the members of his crew are out on a mission for eight or nine days, after which they spend two days at their base, resting while the ship is being reconditioned.
Sgt. Moore was surprised to learn the attitude of the folks at home regarding the war in the Pacific. Most people, he said, seem to believe the United States is making great headway against the Japs and that victory is not far away. The men out there know that the fight ahead is hard and long and that the Nips haven’t yet been hit where it hurts.
Addresses Rotary Club
Sgt. Moore has also been in a position to learn the way the man on the fighting front feels about matters at home. He revealed some of their reactions when he appeared as guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary club held last night in the Hotel Richard McAllister.
Sgt. Moore told the clubmen that the troops in the Pacific area do not appear to care whether or not they are given an opportunity to vote. They would prefer to have the wrangling at home done away with in order that the Nation may give all its attention to winning the war.
The men on the islands of the Pacific who have seen their buddies pay the supreme sacrifice feel nothing but bitterness for the strikers at home, Sgt. Moore told the clubmen. He said that any soldier on the battle fronts would gladly change places with the men going out on strike, feeling that strikers would gladly go back to their jobs after serving for 30 days under conditions which the fighting Yanks accept without complaint.
Japanese Are Tricky
The tricky Japanese fighter should not be underestimated, the Rotarians heard. Sgt. Moore gave several examples of fanatical fighting of the little yellow man. The present crop of the Nipponese fighters could be compared, the speaker said, with American fliers in their second stage of training, but in the earlier days of the war, the Jap pilots were well trained and capable.
Sgt. Moore displayed a number of souvenirs obtained by him on various Pacific battlefields. Among them were Japanese hand grenades, bayonets and other interesting items.
Wears Decorations
On his tunic, the Hanover radio operator wears a number of decorations. Among them is the Air Medal, pinned upon his chest last August by Admiral Nimitz. He has the Asiatic Pacific campaign ribbon, the pre-Pearl Harbor ribbon, the American Defense ribbon for coastal patrol and the Good Conduct ribbon.
Sgt. Moore has been in the Air Corps since August, 1941. After being graduated from high school here, he attended Indiana State Teachers’ college for one year, and then was employed for a year in a Hanover Shoe store in Washington.
Sgt. Moore trained at Keesler Field, Miss.; Scott Field, Ill., and Morrison Field, Fla. Then he was sent to the West Coast and from there to Hawaii. For the past 20 months he has been a member of 19th Troop Transport Squadron.
While Sgt. Moore enjoys his work, has seen much of the world and has come in personal contact with some of the major figures of World War II, he, like many other boys, hopes that his next visit home “will be for good.” He hopes, too, that the iron dog will still be on the square.
Following the war, Moore, a native of Harrisburg, PA, completed his education at the University of California, Berkley campus. He returned east to New Jersey where he began a career with RCA. Moore and his wife Carol retired to Southport in 1980.
Obituary, Wilmington Star-News:
James Draden Moore, 92, of Wilmington, passed away on Thursday, March 14, 2013, at his home. Mr. Moore was born April 26, 1920, in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, the son of the late James Draden Moore and Pearl Brockley Moore. He attended the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School, and was a veteran of the US Army Air Corp. Mr. Moore was a retired district manager with RCA in Atlanta and had worked for over 30 years on Bald Head Island in real estate sales and marketing. He was preceded in death by a sister Doris Moore Thomas.
Surviving is his wife Carol Saulsbury Moore of the home; a son James Draden Moore of Marietta, GA; three daughters Anne Moore Bonnefant and husband Patrick of France, Libby Moore Schaffer and husband Todd of Wilmington, and Martha Moore Bumgarner of Morganton; a sister Nancy Moore Blence of Philidelphia, PA; ten grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11:00 am on Wednesday, March 20, 2013, at St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Southport with Reverend Barry Kubler officiating. A reception will follow at the church.
Old clip from The Evening Sun (Hanover, Pa.), March 7, 1944 –
Sgt. Moore Tells of Experiences
Hanover Flier Home First Time in Nearly Three Years of Service – Addresses Rotary Club.
One of the first “friends” he looked for upon his arrival home after 20 months of winging his way about the islands of the Pacific from “Frisco to Australia” was the iron dog in the Hanover square. Sgt. J. Draden Moore told a representative of The Evening Sun at the home of his parents, Mr. and Mrs. James D. Moore, 22 West Walnut street, today.
Sgt. Moore arrived home last week to spend a brief furlough, the first since he entered the service nearly three years ago. Within the next several days he is to leave again for the Central Pacific area, where he helps carry vital supplies to the combat areas and assists in removing wounded Yanks from the battle zones.
“When you meet a Hanover boy outside the country, the conversation always seems to get around to the iron dog on the square,” the 23-year-old airman said. “The last man to leave Hanover is always asked whether or not the iron dog is still there. I was certainly glad to see him when I got back.”
Met Hanoverians in Hawaii
Only in Hawaii, where the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron, of which he is a member, was based, did Sgt. Moore meet any boys from home. There he encountered Lt. Herbert P. Rutters, Third street, a bomber pilot; Sgt. Anthony G. Topper, North street, McSherrystown and Sgt. Charles Clifton Smith, Sixth street, McSherrystown.
Lt. Rutters was on his way from the United States to Australia when Sgt. Moore just back from a mission out over the Pacific, met him in the Post Exchange at Hickam Field. Sgts. Topper and Smith are engaged in clerical work at Hickam Field. “Whenever I get in there I drop around to have a gabfest with them,” Sgt. Moore asserted.
Draden Moore, who half a dozen years ago was “Ace” Moore, a big center on the Hanover High school basketball team, is now a radio operator assigned to the staff ship of the Seventh Air Force, which covers the Pacific Area west of the United States and east of the Solomons.
His First Trip Home
When high ranking Army or Navy officials wish to fly to inspect any of the newly-taken Pacific bases or to confer with officials in Washington, they make the trips in the staff ship. It was one of these trips which enabled Sgt. Moore to make his first visit home in uniform. The plane to which he is assigned recently brought two high Army officials from the Central Pacific to Washington. While they were transacting their business in the capital, the Hanover man was permitted to come to his home here.
When not engaged in transporting Army and Navy officials, the big four-engined LB-30 to which Sgt. Moore is assigned and other planes of the 19th Troop Carrier Squadron are busy rushing vital materials – including blood plasma and shells – to areas in which the Yanks are battling the Japs.
Visited Many Islands
“I don’t believe there is an island with an American or British-held air base between California and Australia that we haven’t visited,” Sgt. Moore said. His ship carried supplies to Guadalcanal, Midway and Tarawa and helped evacuate the wounded.
“We usually land as soon as a beach head has been established and an air field is taken,” Sgt. Moore said. “On our first trip over the air field we fly low to let the medics on the ground know we are coming in. By the time we touch the ground, they have the wounded there waiting for us. They are placed aboard and we take off immediately.”
Sgt. Moore has had a number of close calls but isn’t inclined to talk about them. He has been under bombing attack a number of times, sweating it out in fox holes. On one occasion, in the New Hebrides, he and his navigator slept through a bombing attack with an antiaircraft gun outside their hut never disturbing them.
“We had just concluded a three-day plane trip and were too tired to be disturbed by anything,” Sgt. Moore said. Usually, the radio operator revealed, the members of his crew are out on a mission for eight or nine days, after which they spend two days at their base, resting while the ship is being reconditioned.
Sgt. Moore was surprised to learn the attitude of the folks at home regarding the war in the Pacific. Most people, he said, seem to believe the United States is making great headway against the Japs and that victory is not far away. The men out there know that the fight ahead is hard and long and that the Nips haven’t yet been hit where it hurts.
Addresses Rotary Club
Sgt. Moore has also been in a position to learn the way the man on the fighting front feels about matters at home. He revealed some of their reactions when he appeared as guest speaker at a meeting of the Rotary club held last night in the Hotel Richard McAllister.
Sgt. Moore told the clubmen that the troops in the Pacific area do not appear to care whether or not they are given an opportunity to vote. They would prefer to have the wrangling at home done away with in order that the Nation may give all its attention to winning the war.
The men on the islands of the Pacific who have seen their buddies pay the supreme sacrifice feel nothing but bitterness for the strikers at home, Sgt. Moore told the clubmen. He said that any soldier on the battle fronts would gladly change places with the men going out on strike, feeling that strikers would gladly go back to their jobs after serving for 30 days under conditions which the fighting Yanks accept without complaint.
Japanese Are Tricky
The tricky Japanese fighter should not be underestimated, the Rotarians heard. Sgt. Moore gave several examples of fanatical fighting of the little yellow man. The present crop of the Nipponese fighters could be compared, the speaker said, with American fliers in their second stage of training, but in the earlier days of the war, the Jap pilots were well trained and capable.
Sgt. Moore displayed a number of souvenirs obtained by him on various Pacific battlefields. Among them were Japanese hand grenades, bayonets and other interesting items.
Wears Decorations
On his tunic, the Hanover radio operator wears a number of decorations. Among them is the Air Medal, pinned upon his chest last August by Admiral Nimitz. He has the Asiatic Pacific campaign ribbon, the pre-Pearl Harbor ribbon, the American Defense ribbon for coastal patrol and the Good Conduct ribbon.
Sgt. Moore has been in the Air Corps since August, 1941. After being graduated from high school here, he attended Indiana State Teachers’ college for one year, and then was employed for a year in a Hanover Shoe store in Washington.
Sgt. Moore trained at Keesler Field, Miss.; Scott Field, Ill., and Morrison Field, Fla. Then he was sent to the West Coast and from there to Hawaii. For the past 20 months he has been a member of 19th Troop Transport Squadron.
While Sgt. Moore enjoys his work, has seen much of the world and has come in personal contact with some of the major figures of World War II, he, like many other boys, hopes that his next visit home “will be for good.” He hopes, too, that the iron dog will still be on the square.
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