Son Discovers Truth of Dad's Service in Two Wars

Son uncovers truth of Korean vet father
San Antonio native fought in B-17, Normandy before death
Houston Chronicle
By Sig Christenson
July 12, 2015

Sgt. Leroy Moore was remembered
Sunday at a cemetery service.

SAN ANTONIO - Army Staff Sgt. Leroy Moore was a mystery to just about everyone in his family.

Nobody knew he got the most dangerous combat assignments, perhaps because neither Moore nor his wife talked about it. But as his son, Scott, dug into the past of a father he never got to know, a picture of a charmed life at war came into focus.

On Sunday, the 65th anniversary of his death on the Korean peninsula, the tale was shared at San Fernando Cemetery No. 3, where Moore was saluted one last time.

Moore, who quit Brackenridge High School in 1939 and joined the Army on his 16th birthday, flew 36 missions over Europe as a ball-turret gunner aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress, the "Shining Hour," until being injured by shrapnel. The Shining Hour was later shot down, with four buddies killed and a fifth listed as missing in action.

Given to a ground job after being released from the hospital, Moore went into the infantry and fought from Normandy through the Battle of the Bulge, earning a Silver Star. Suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, after coming home, Moore, a father of two young sons, rejoined the Army and was sent to Korea weeks after the invasion.

His luck was about to run out.
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