Once lost to time and circumstance, Purple Heart is back with family of Decatur veteran
Jerry Moore was little more than a toddler when his brother went off to war.
Now 86, Moore held the heart-shaped medal for what he said was the first time after Illinois Treasurer Michael Frerichs presented it to him Wednesday at the World War II memorial in Decatur. The poignant ceremony, which included the Macon County Honor Guard, was held just days before the Independence Day holiday weekend.
'It means a lot to my heart,' said Jerry Moore, fighting back tears. 'I don't think there can be any higher honor than getting this back.'
The Decatur man was joined by several family members, including a granddaughter of his late brother, who died in 2002. Angie Holliger flew in from Colorado for the occasion.
'My grandpa would be so happy about this and that it is back with our family,' she said.
Frerichs launched 'Operation Purple Heart' in late 2021 to raise awareness about war medals that had ended up in the state's unclaimed property section after they were left in abandoned safe deposit boxes at banks.
The state treasurer has returned 15 Purple Hearts, including Moore's, during his three terms in office.
Last winter, the Tribune wrote about its own efforts to identify the veterans who had earned the Purple Hearts that at the time remained unclaimed. After months of researching public records, unearthing decades-old war documents and interviewing people linked to the safe deposit boxes, the Tribune succeeded in 10 of the 11 cases on the treasurer's public list — including that of John Moore.
The treasurer's office has been working to verify the claims of relatives who have come forward so far following the Tribune's reporting, officials said. Frerichs pledged to continue his effort.
'These symbols of honor and heroism don't deserve to be in a cold vault,' he said Wednesday. 'I don't know what it was like for John's family here today but it's frequently a reminder of that person who was special in your life. The ability to reconnect is something that is really special.'
The state had preserved Moore's medal in its Springfield vault since 2001, when a Peoria bank turned it over. John Moore died a year later at age 78 from a heart attack. The only other item in the safe deposit box was his last will and testament.
The box was in the name of his second wife, Linda, whom he married in 1986. Their marriage ended in 1992, according to court records.
Besides tracking down Moore's brother and granddaughter, the Tribune found his ex-wife, Linda, who had remarried and was living in Texas. She confirmed to the Tribune that the Purple Heart was her former husband's and said it belongs with his family, clearing the way for Wednesday's ceremony.
Two of the four Moore brothers fought in WWII, and both made it home to Peoria. John Moore survived the D-Day invasion in 1944 only to be wounded shortly afterward by shrapnel in his right wrist, left knee and lower right leg while fighting in France that July 27, according to his military records.
He returned to active duty that winter for several months, but persistent nerve damage affected the use of his hand and led to more hospitalizations. Moore was honorably discharged in early 1946 after three years of service that included battles in Normandy, the Rhineland and northern France, the records state.
Jerry Moore, the youngest of the four boys, still recalls his parents' anguish while their sons were off fighting in the war.
'Johnny got shot pretty bad,' Jerry Moore said. 'He had a young lieutenant who led them into what turned out to be an ambush and that's how he got wounded. There were several in his outfit that got shot. Some of them didn't make it.'
He said his brother's war injuries, including chronic pain in his legs, gave him trouble but John Moore persisted. He married his first wife, Grace, shortly after his return and had five children with her, including a boy who died a few months after birth, according to the family.
Relatives said John Moore enjoyed hunting and fishing and worked in carpentry and roofing, having learned the trades along with his brothers while working with their dad, a World War I veteran. John Moore also worked as a truck driver, postal worker and hospital maintenance supervisor before retiring in 1986.
Moore was a past commander for Veterans of Foreign Wars posts in Peoria Heights and East Peoria, active in the American Legion and among the many who joined an effort to build Illinois' WWII Illinois Veterans Memorial in Oak Ridge Cemetery in Springfield. His name is among nearly 3,000 etched in the memorial's commemorative granite bricks.
The bronze headstone of his grave in nearby Warrensburg also speaks to his proud military service. It reads: 'John Louis Moore Sr. PFC US Army WWII Purple Heart D-Day Invasion Survivor.'
It was Holliger, whose mother was one of John Moore's daughters, who filed a claim with the treasurer's office for the return of her grandfather's Purple Heart after the Tribune contacted her last year. She said the Purple Heart belongs with her uncle, Jerry, who shared a close bond with John.
After the ceremony, Jerry Moore went back to his Decatur home and placed the black box holding his brother's Purple Heart on the top shelf of a living room display case, next to the folded American flag bestowed upon the family at John Moore's funeral more than two decades ago.
'I'll keep this the rest of my life,' Jerry Moore said of the Purple Heart. 'We've always been a fairly close family and John, he was the rock. I appreciate all the time we had with him.'
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San Francisco Chronicle
7 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
US military chaplaincy marks 250 years of providing spiritual support to service members
(RNS) — In 1775, a year before there was a United States and six weeks after the Continental Army was formed, George Washington made a declaration that has shaped the military ever since. 'We need chaplains,' he reportedly remarked, prompting action by the Continental Congress near the start of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. military chaplaincy marked 250 years on July 29 as the national military marked its own 250th anniversary in June. A week of celebrations includes a golf tournament at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, hosted by an organization raising funds for scholarships for family members of chaplains, and a sold-out ball nearby in Columbia. Meanwhile, across the globe, thousands of clergy in uniform continue to provide counsel and care to military members of a range of faiths or no faith. 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Smith, the grandson of a former PNBC president, stood before delegates and described his just-completed tour as a Marine Corps command chaplain in Okinawa, Japan, and his plans to report to a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, to begin a tour of Europe and the Middle East and be promoted to lieutenant commander. 'My team and I have ministered to thousands of Marines, sailors, civilians and Japanese,' he said. 'We increased our chapel's membership from eight to 100. We incorporated spiritual readiness into our base's core curriculum.'' ___ Chaplains serve in hospitals, hospices and manufacturing plants, and while chaplaincy researchers see commonalities among them, there are also key differences in the military. All are involved in gaining the trust of people who are in their particular milieu, enabling them to think and sometimes pray through their times of greatest need and day-to-day struggles. 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For example, Berry Gordy, who later founded Motown Records, served as a private in the Korean War and played a portable organ and was known as a chaplain assistant, notes ' Sacred Duty,' a new comic book posted on the Army's website to mark the anniversary. While 218 chaplains served in the Revolutionary War, 9,117 chaplains served in World War II, according to the Army. Currently, the Army has 1,500 chaplains on active duty. The Navy Chaplain Corps, which began on Nov. 18, 1775, had 24 chaplains during the Civil War; 203 by the end of World War I; 1,158 at its height in 1990; and currently has 898 on active duty, according to the Navy. 'Today's Chaplain Corps includes Chaplains representing a multitude of faith groups, and the Chaplain Corps recruiting team is actively working to increase the Corps' diversity, with a special focus on increasing the number of women Chaplains in the Corps and the number of Chaplains representing low-density faith groups,' reads an Army historical booklet marking the Chaplain Corps' 250 years. Initially, U.S. military chaplains were Protestants. The first Catholic chaplains served in the Mexican-American War in 1846, and the first rabbi was commissioned in 1862 and served in the Civil War. The first Muslim chaplains were commissioned in the Army in 1993. The first Buddhist Army chaplain was named in 2008, followed by the first Hindu chaplain in 2011. Chaplain Margaret Kibben, acting chaplain of the House of Representatives and former chief of chaplains of the Navy — the first woman in that role — said the isolation and the immediacy of ethical decisions faced by military members, as well as a high level of confidentially, can make the work of military chaplaincy teams different from other settings where chaplains work. 'It's the one place that people can go where there's essentially a sanctuary around them, wherever they find themselves, a safe place to have somebody to talk to about a whole host of issues,' she said, adding that topics can include anything from supporting their families to handling combat responsibilities. 'How do you deal with those issues in a place where you're not going to look stupid, you're not going to look weak or unreliable because you have these doubts and you have these concerns — to have a place that you can go to ensure that you can get that off your chest?' 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'I had soldiers who were practitioners of Wiccan faith, and my job is not to say to them, 'Hey, wouldn't you like to love Jesus?'' she said, recalling how she assisted a Wiccan Army member serving in Korea. 'My job was to help that young soldier find where his particular group of folks met and where he could practice his faith.' Also during her service in Korea in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Diefendorf said she provided cassette tapes of sermons to soldiers and entrusted one with Communion elements because she knew she wouldn't be able to reach their location often. 'So far, the courts have upheld that you certainly have two competing clauses within the First Amendment, establishment and free exercise,' she said. 'And at this point, certainly chaplains have to walk that fine line not to create establishment in the midst of trying to also enable people to practice their beliefs.' Schaick recalled being deployed overseas in the Air Force when a new rabbi joined his staff. On arrival, the rabbi described himself as 'first and foremost a chaplain and secondarily a rabbi' — an order of priorities that Schaick said applies to chaplains to this day, regardless of their faith perspective. 'The longer you serve in the chaplaincy, I think the closer you get to really believing that — and therefore, religious affiliation becomes secondary,' he said. 'It's 'How're you doing today?' and 'I'd love to hear what's on your heart' and 'How can I be able to help you today?' Those kind of questions, quite frankly, are impervious to religious distinctions.'
Hamilton Spectator
8 hours ago
- Hamilton Spectator
US military chaplaincy marks 250 years of providing spiritual support to service members
(RNS) — In 1775, a year before there was a United States and six weeks after the Continental Army was formed, George Washington made a declaration that has shaped the military ever since. 'We need chaplains,' he reportedly remarked, prompting action by the Continental Congress near the start of the Revolutionary War. The U.S. military chaplaincy marked 250 years on July 29 as the national military marked its own 250th anniversary in June. A week of celebrations includes a golf tournament at Fort Jackson in South Carolina, hosted by an organization raising funds for scholarships for family members of chaplains, and a sold-out ball nearby in Columbia. Meanwhile, across the globe, thousands of clergy in uniform continue to provide counsel and care to military members of a range of faiths or no faith. 'In times of peace and war, our chaplains have held fast as beacons of hope and resilience for our troops, whether enduring the brutal winter of Valley Forge, comforting the wounded and dying on the battlefields during the Civil War, braving trench warfare in World War I, storming the beaches of Normandy during World War II, marching the frozen mountains during the Korean War, slogging through the rice paddies and jungle battlefields of Vietnam or traveling the bomb-filled roads of Iraq and Afghanistan,' said retired Chaplain (Major General) Doug Carver, a former Army chief of chaplains in charge of the Southern Baptist Convention's chaplaincy ministries, at the denomination's June annual meeting in Dallas. A month later at the annual session of the Progressive National Baptist Convention in Chicago, Navy Chaplain J.M. Smith, the grandson of a former PNBC president, stood before delegates and described his just-completed tour as a Marine Corps command chaplain in Okinawa, Japan, and his plans to report to a ship in Norfolk, Virginia, to begin a tour of Europe and the Middle East and be promoted to lieutenant commander. 'My team and I have ministered to thousands of Marines, sailors, civilians and Japanese,' he said. 'We increased our chapel's membership from eight to 100. We incorporated spiritual readiness into our base's core curriculum.'' ___ This content is written and produced by Religion News Service and distributed by The Associated Press. RNS and AP partner on some religion news content. RNS is solely responsible for this story. ___ Chaplains serve in hospitals, hospices and manufacturing plants, and while chaplaincy researchers see commonalities among them, there are also key differences in the military. All are involved in gaining the trust of people who are in their particular milieu, enabling them to think and sometimes pray through their times of greatest need and day-to-day struggles. An example of both the danger and the dedication of military service chaplaincy is the 1943 death of four chaplains — two Protestant, one Catholic and one Jewish — who helped save some of those aboard a World War II ship, turning over their life jackets and praying and singing hymns before it sank. All four were trained at Harvard University , then the site of the Army's chaplain training school, during a two-year wartime period. 'It was a real defining moment,' said retired Gen. Steve Schaick, who served as Air Force chief of chaplains from 2018 to 2021, and in the same role for the Space Force from 2019 to 2021. 'The stories that came from that really kind of highlighted chaplains at their best.' The Army's chaplaincy corps also includes religious affairs specialists and religious education directors. Some service members provide armed protection to unarmed chaplains and set up worship spaces in on-base chapels or makeshift altars on truck hoods in the field. For example, Berry Gordy, who later founded Motown Records, served as a private in the Korean War and played a portable organ and was known as a chaplain assistant, notes ' Sacred Duty ,' a new comic book posted on the Army's website to mark the anniversary. While 218 chaplains served in the Revolutionary War, 9,117 chaplains served in World War II, according to the Army. Currently, the Army has 1,500 chaplains on active duty. The Navy Chaplain Corps, which began on Nov. 18, 1775, had 24 chaplains during the Civil War; 203 by the end of World War I; 1,158 at its height in 1990; and currently has 898 on active duty, according to the Navy. 'Today's Chaplain Corps includes Chaplains representing a multitude of faith groups, and the Chaplain Corps recruiting team is actively working to increase the Corps' diversity, with a special focus on increasing the number of women Chaplains in the Corps and the number of Chaplains representing low-density faith groups,' reads an Army historical booklet marking the Chaplain Corps' 250 years. Initially, U.S. military chaplains were Protestants. The first Catholic chaplains served in the Mexican-American War in 1846, and the first rabbi was commissioned in 1862 and served in the Civil War. The first Muslim chaplains were commissioned in the Army in 1993. The first Buddhist Army chaplain was named in 2008, followed by the first Hindu chaplain in 2011. Chaplain Margaret Kibben, acting chaplain of the House of Representatives and former chief of chaplains of the Navy — the first woman in that role — said the isolation and the immediacy of ethical decisions faced by military members, as well as a high level of confidentially, can make the work of military chaplaincy teams different from other settings where chaplains work. 'It's the one place that people can go where there's essentially a sanctuary around them, wherever they find themselves, a safe place to have somebody to talk to about a whole host of issues,' she said, adding that topics can include anything from supporting their families to handling combat responsibilities. 'How do you deal with those issues in a place where you're not going to look stupid, you're not going to look weak or unreliable because you have these doubts and you have these concerns — to have a place that you can go to ensure that you can get that off your chest?' Those private conversations often are not faith-filled, added Kibben, reflecting on her military career that began in 1986. 'What I realized later, 20, 30 years later, was that many service members have never learned the language of faith,' she said, citing terms like confession and forgiveness. 'So as a chaplain, we had to figure out our way around the lack of a lexicon of faith. How do you speak about grace to someone who doesn't have a clue how powerful grace is?' Another change, sparked by the efforts of Julie Moore, the wife of a military officer who served in the Vietnam War, was the Army's method for notifying the next of kin when a soldier died. Soon after a 1960s battle in that war, a chaplain and a uniformed officer began teaming up to knock on families' doors; prior to that time, the news arrived in a telegram delivered by a cab driver. The work of chaplains has sometimes been the source of church-state debates. For example, Michael 'Mikey' Weinstein of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for separation of church and state in the U.S. military, has questioned what he viewed as proselytism in the chaplains' ranks. Meanwhile, conservative Christian organizations have voiced concerns about an antipathy against some Christians in military ranks. Karen Diefendorf, a two-time Army chaplain and a board member of the U.S. Army Chaplain Corps Regimental Association, which supports chaplains and their families, said the primary goal for chaplains is 'to provide for the free exercise rights of every soldier, sailor, airman, Marine, Coast Guardsman.' She currently is an interim minister of an independent Methodist church in South Carolina, after serving as a chaplain at Tysons Foods and in hospice care. 'I had soldiers who were practitioners of Wiccan faith, and my job is not to say to them, 'Hey, wouldn't you like to love Jesus?'' she said, recalling how she assisted a Wiccan Army member serving in Korea. 'My job was to help that young soldier find where his particular group of folks met and where he could practice his faith.' Also during her service in Korea in the late 1990s and early 2000s, Diefendorf said she provided cassette tapes of sermons to soldiers and entrusted one with Communion elements because she knew she wouldn't be able to reach their location often. 'So far, the courts have upheld that you certainly have two competing clauses within the First Amendment, establishment and free exercise,' she said. 'And at this point, certainly chaplains have to walk that fine line not to create establishment in the midst of trying to also enable people to practice their beliefs.' Schaick recalled being deployed overseas in the Air Force when a new rabbi joined his staff. On arrival, the rabbi described himself as 'first and foremost a chaplain and secondarily a rabbi' — an order of priorities that Schaick said applies to chaplains to this day, regardless of their faith perspective. 'The longer you serve in the chaplaincy, I think the closer you get to really believing that — and therefore, religious affiliation becomes secondary,' he said. 'It's 'How're you doing today?' and 'I'd love to hear what's on your heart' and 'How can I be able to help you today?' Those kind of questions, quite frankly, are impervious to religious distinctions.' Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . 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The Hill
10 hours ago
- The Hill
Watch live: NTSB conducts final day of hearings on National Airport crash
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is meeting Friday for its final day of hearings looking into the January crash between an Army helicopter and American Airlines plane near Washington, D.C., which killed all 67 people onboard both aircraft. New details have emerged since the NTSB launched its probe, including documents suggesting the Army Black Hawk helicopter may have been relying on inaccurate readings during its training flight. This could explain why the chopper was flying higher than it should have been over the Potomac River in the lead-up to the mid-air collision near Reagan Washington National Airport. The collision marked one of the deadliest aviation incidents since the 9/11 attacks. The final day of hearings will focus on technology, safety data systems across the aviation sector and closing remarks, according to the website. The event is scheduled to begin at 9 a.m. EDT. Watch the live video above.
