05-05-2025
Look back: Army master sergeant from Glen Lyon served in three wars
May 4—"Somewhere in Korea" was the dateline of an Associated Press story published in the Times Leader Evening News on June 4, 1951, that involved U.S. Army Sgt. Maurice William Mosher and his heroic actions that killed an estimated 300 enemy soldiers in 15 minutes in a battle during the Korean War.
Mosher was 15-years-old in 1943 when he left an orphanage in New Jersey to live with his sister, Ruth Mosher Namowicz, at 37 Engle St., Glen Lyon. Mosher became employed as a laborer for a coal mine where he earned the nickname, "Bud," but enlisted in the Merchant Marines at 17 and served four months before World War II ended.
Having the brief experience in the military at the end of World War II, Mosher enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1949, naming Glen Lyon as his home, and made the military his career, serving during the Korean War and Vietnam War, where he was killed in action on May 25, 1965.
For his heroic bravery during the Korean War battle where he was credited with killing hundreds, he was awarded three Bronze Stars and the Silver Star, the third highest combat medal in the U.S. Armed Services.
"Sgt. Maurice Mosher, 23, a resident of Glen Lyon, yesterday was recommended for the Silver Star for killing 300 Chinese Reds in 15 minutes in Korea," reported the Times Leader Evening News on May 25, 1951.
The story reported Mosher was alone when he secretly entered a town surrounded by communist North Korean and Chinese soldiers and destroyed tanks and ammunition dumps before he retreated. As hundreds of enemy soldiers pursued him through a narrow path guided by high cliffs, Mosher took cover and fired back.
"Only one could come through the pass at a time, Mosher said, and that was where my gun was mowing them down. As one Red would go down, another would take his place and meet the same end," the Associated Press story on June 4, 1951, reported.
Mosher's machine gun burned out and he picked up another firearm he found near him.
"While Mosher was firing upon the enemy, the rest of his platoon covered his retreat with deadly rifle fire but the Chinese kept coming but could not overrun the Yankee positions," reported the AP story.
One Army private was hit by enemy fire and Mosher used his field jacket as a stretcher to pull the injured solider to safety.
Mosher continued to serve during the Korean War and was one of the first U.S. combat ground troops to enter Vietnam in early 1965, where at this time, he was an Infantry and Intelligence Specialist with the Special Forces (Green Beret) serving as an advisor with the Vietnamese Army.
According to an accumulation of reports from military websites, Mosher gathered a small team of U.S. soldiers and Cambodian troops in response to a U.S. Army supply truck being fired upon near Tay Ninh. It was learned a Viet Cong sniper fired three shots at the supply truck, striking a solider.
Mosher and a small team boarded several trucks and drove to the area where the sniper was believed to be, and as they disembarked the trucks and began a slow march through rice paddies to a tree line, they took fire from the Viet Cong.
Mosher charged at a Viet Cong machine gunner firing his AR-15 in return but was struck and killed.
Mosher was buried in Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington, Va., with an interment date listed as May 23, 1985.
