Remembering Kenneth Moore, Sonoma’s D-Day hero

Kenneth Moore, who lived the last 40 years of his life in Sonoma, was a hero 75 years ago during the World War II D-Day invasion. Moore and Bob Wright, Army 101st Airborne Division medics, set up a makeshift aid station in a small church in Normandy, France, using the pews as beds and tending the wounded, saving 81 lives.

A 5-foot tall granite monument honoring Moore and Wright was erected at the church in Angoville-au-Plain, in 2002, and a 2012 PBS documentary “Eagles of Mercy” tells the story of Moore and Wright’s heroism.

“My father loved all the attention,” his son Frank Moore, 70, said about his father’s reaction to the honors. “It meant the world to him.”

Moore enlisted in the Army shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. He volunteered to be a paratrooper and was chosen to be a medic, although he was given very little training. He did not see any combat until D-Day, June 6, 1944, when he parachuted into the war zone, carrying medical supplies but no weapon.

The documentary reports that Moore and Wright commandeered the 12th century church by hanging a Red Cross banner outside. “Our training and our job was essentially to stop the bleeding, administer morphine for pain and bandage up the wounded as best we could,” Moore said in the film. “I started rounding up casualties. We used a farm cart to move the wounded who couldn’t walk.”

Among those they cared for were a few German soldiers. “They were young men just like us except they were wearing different uniforms,” Moore said on camera. Their only rule was all weapons were left outside. They also saved the life of a young French girl in the church-turned hospital.

American troops were forced to withdraw from the area on June 8, when Moore and Wright were reportedly told, “Come along or you are on your own.” They felt their duty was to the wounded and they stayed back several more days until Allied troops eventually regained the area in victory.

Moore received the Silver Star for valor, a Bronze Star for survival and a Purple Heart for an injury sustained when a mortar blast hit the church and a piece of the roof cut his head. “Medals are awarded to the fortunate few who are observed to do something unusual. Most of those who served in the war deserve them but don’t get them,” Moore told the Index-Tribune in a 2002 interview.

He was not able to attend the dedication of the monument emblazoned with his name, and the words “for humane and lifesaving care rendered to 80 combatants and a child” in both English and French, but he did return to Normandy in 1994 to attend ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day.

After the war Moore married his high school sweetheart, Genevieve, and they had three children. He owned gas stations in San Francisco and they lived in Marin until 1971, when he bought a Chevron service station on East Napa Street, working there for 18 years until his retirement. He and his wife lived on a 3-acre property on Napa Road with their Labradors, raising chickens and goats, enjoying a rural lifestyle. They moved to a condo off Andrieux Street in later years, his son said.

“I told my grandchildren that my role in the war was to be an observer. I wasn’t there to kill anybody.”

Moore’s grandson Christian Moore, 46, said he and his siblings, Jesse and Jamie, and cousins Nyla and Amy loved their grandfather immensely. When they were growing up they visited frequently and always opened presents at their grandparents home on Christmas Eve. “He was a great storyteller and very charismatic,” he said. “He was always the center of attention.”

“My grandfather was so family-oriented. He was a hard worker and he always looked out for his kids and grandkids,” Christian Moore said. “He was not a big proponent of talking about the war, but if you asked him he always had great stories.”

He told them that he signed up to be a paratrooper because when he was standing in line to enlist, someone said it paid a little more. “And he said he thought it would get him more attention from the girls.” He also said that he lied about his age, as he was only 17 at the time.

Christian Moore retired from the Air Force in 2014 after 20 years and said he was inspired to serve in part because of the heroism of his grandfather.

“I absolutely loved him,” Christian’s wife Desiree said. “You were totally drawn to him. He was always the center of attention when he walked in the room. He was an all-round great guy.”

No one in the Moore family has been to France to see the monument at the church “It’s on our bucket list,” Christian Moore said.

Frank Moore said that his father stayed in touch with his war buddies throughout his life, and that he spoke with fellow hero Bob Wright frequently. Wright died in Florida in 2013.

Ken Moore’s wife, his son Christopher and his daughter Stephanie died between the years 2000 and 2005.

Ken Moore died at age 90 of congestive heart failure at Sonoma Valley Hospital on Dec 7, 2014, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.