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Submitted: 4/6/10 • Approved: 8/22/19 • Last Updated: 8/25/19 • R306766-G0-S3
PRIVATE FIRST CLASS US Army
32 Infantry 7 Division
May 17, 1922 - June 10, 1945
Killed In Action
Article in the Yell County Record from November 4, 2009 on local World War II heroes:
World War II left a lasting impact on many Yell County residents. Ninety three soldiers from the county gave the ultimate sacrifice for their country’s battle against tyranny.
R L Moore, a brother of Havana resident Pearl Tougaw, was one of those soldiers. Moore, born on May 17, 1922, was the second of seven children of Stirl and Ruby Moore. Moore attended Havana High School until age 17 when he left school to marry Florene Crow. A year later a daughter named Darlene was born.
Moore was drafted and inducted into the Army on May 22, 1944 and assigned to training at Camp Walters, Texas. However, before his unit was shipped overseas tragedy struck. Moore’s older brother Erman was killed after falling off an oil derrick he was working on in Madill, Oklahoma on September 21, 1944.
While on leave for the funeral Moore’s unit was shipped overseas to join the fighting in Europe. When he returned to Texas, Moore was assigned as a Private First Class in the Army’s 32nd Infantry Seventh Division. Then in January 1945 the unit was sent to the War in the Pacific where he served in the Hawaiian Islands, on Saipan, and on Okinawa.
Even though victory was at hand the dangers in the fight against Japan were still many. On June 10 Moore was patrolling some of the hills of Okinawa for snipers when a sniper’s bullet struck and killed him. Moore’s family didn’t receive notification of his death until July 9, but already suspected something might be wrong when they stopped receiving his letters that he wrote every couple of days.
Like a lot of soldiers Moore was buried overseas in a military cemetery. A few years later some families of the deceased veterans were given the option to bring the remains of their loved ones home. A few local families, including the Moore family, agreed while others opted against doing so.
Moore’s body arrived on a train in Danville in mid-February 1949. A soldier accompanied the casket and turned it over to the family. Moore’s body was laid to its final rest later that month at the Havana Cemetery.
R.L. Moore’s story is just one of thousands. The pain and sacrifice that his family endured was common among Yell County families. The devotion and love of country and freedom that each of the 93 soldiers who perished in the war and the countless others from the county who served is beyond admirable. Without them the United States might not be a free country from “sea to shining sea.”
Contributed on 4/6/10 by jwillard24
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Record #: 306766