Memorial Day 2006

Bluff City cemetery, Elgin, IL - the Grand Army of the Republic Section.

Elgin, Illinois is quite serious about her veteran's memorials and the upkeep of their gravesites. Of course, this is a small city that lost over a hundred men in the Civil War, much less what she gave to WWI, WWII and Korea. This year the ceremony was dedicated to the dead of Vietnam, MSG Nelson Roger Moore (KIA 5/24/66) in particular.

This is the man that MSG Moore was:

His first tour of duty with the United States Army (MSGT/E-8, Special Forces) in Vietnam began on September 26, 1965, however he spent a total of 14 years in the Army - dying in South Vietnam at the age of 33 on May 24, 1966. His body was found three days later in a rice paddy near the Cambodian border and the Ho Chi Minh Trail. According to an old Courier News article from May of 1966, Moore was awarded the Air Force Flying Cross for his rescue of a downed bomber crew behind enemy lines. He led the crew through enemy lines without capture or harm. He was awarded the Silver Star when he, after being hit with a machine gun bullet, never lost his composure as senior advisor to the operation of his company (Hmong mountain village fighters) when ambushed by a platoon of guerrillas. Dazed, bleeding and not knowing the extent of his own wounds, he successfully organized the orderly movement of his company to a defensible position without suffering casualties and disrupted the Viet Cong's attempt to encircle his unit. He also acted as ground observer for air strikes directed only at certain enemy houses in Sahn Duo. This was done with such success that not one of the 150 innocent villagers were injured by five strikes on houses he had designated as hostile, according to citations. Moore was also awarded the Bronze Star and the Vietnamese Bronze Star.

He was Elgin, Illinois' first casualty of the Vietnam War.

REMEMBER WHAT TODAY IS ALL ABOUT.