The morning Roger was killed, I was in our tent, and was about to leave the tent to go to the flight line where the maintenance crews were working to get the most gunships flyable for the next day missions. At that time, I was assigned responsibility as commander of the maintenance detachment for the last six months of my second tour in Vietnam. Roger was lying on a cot and asked where I was going. I replied that I was going to the flight line to check on the progress for getting ready for tomorrow. He asked if he could ride with me in the jeep. I knew it was his day off, so I said why don't you just get some rest? He said no, that he wanted to clean and wash his gun ship. I said OK, and we left for the flightline. I told the driver to go to his gunship first. When we arrived at his ship, we both got out and the driver drove off to the maintenance tent. Roger started inspecting his ship, and I said that I was going to walk up the line to check on the other ships. As I recall, I had walked about 20 to 30 yards away from Roger's ship when I heard a rocket going over my head. I turned quickly to look behind and saw the impact of the rocket hitting the ship and Roger with pieces flying away. As I ran back to his ship, I knew he had to be hit, and he was dead instantly.
We gathered the remains and I went to tell the Chaplin. I can't be sure of the exact time, but I know that the person that fired the rocket was killed, I believe to be the next day. Close by our camp, a dirt road led the way to Saigon, where a gunship was flying and spotted a cart going down the road being pushed by a man(Vietcong) and a woman. The woman was the man's wife, who worked for the Division in our camp. Her job was to supervise the other Vietnamese women working in the camp cleaning the living area where we were camped. It was determined that in her job she also was seen with a clip board on which she recorded the spots where rockets were hitting areas in our camp. Apparently, this was to inform her husband where the rockets landed, which information he used to adjust the next day's launchings. The gunship destroyed the cart and the man and woman, which we presumed to be the killer of Roger.
I had not spent a lot of time with Roger, but as the Unit flight instructor and examiner, I had flown with him for evaluation, and he was a fine and dedicated pilot. I only found out who he was recently by a Veterans Administration employee, Peggy Marquart, in Florence, Alabama. She found a picture of him to show me as she was helping me with a claim, and asked me about any bad effects from the combat experiences that may have any bearing on my own current mental condition. I saw and experienced lots of bad incidents during both of my tours, but the one that I really regret was this one instance, where I wish I could have persuaded him to stay in the tent and rest, instead of going to clean his gunship.
From: J.D. Horne
That's not entirely accurate about LT Roger Moore either. I was not an A/C yet and was scheduled to fly with LT Marvin, that day was a "maintenance stand-down" day for the116. LT Marvin got LT Moore to come over with him in case we had to fly he wanted to give Moore experience as Flight Lead since Moore would probably be taking over. He asked me to switch places with Moore. There was a new guy(!) they wanted to fly so Marvin said I could take off, I went back to my hootch. Heard an explosion, a little later Herb Knutson(Hornet 27) came into the hootch covered with blood and said Moore had been killed by a rocket. Herb said that Moore was standing next to the sync elevator when the rocket came in it went off next to Moore and the fragments went thru the ship and hit the crew chief in the chest while he was cleaning the chin bubble. This is what Herb told me as I WAS NOT THERE! I believe the later investigation determined that it was a 107mm rocket due to the blast pattern and where LT Moore was standing when he got hit by it. That's how I remember that day.
From: Charles Yonts
Reason: artillery or rocket
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Date posted on this site:
11/13/2023
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Casualty type: Hostile - killed
married male U.S. citizen
Race: Caucasian
Religion: Presbyterian
Burial information: BEECH GROVE CEMETERY, MUNCIE, IN
The following information secondary, but may help in explaining this incident.
Category of casualty as defined by the Army: battle dead Category of personnel: active duty Army Military class: officer
This record was last updated on 07/08/2018