MDI Native, Veteran, and Community Volunteer Honored With D.C. Visit
Honor Flight Maine paying for the entire trip
MOUNT DESERT—Not all veterans choose to be veterans and not all those who didn’t make the choice themselves regret having been ordered to serve their country. Forty-one months before the last man to be drafted into United States military service was inducted on June 30, 1973, Robert Moore, of Mount Desert, answered his civic duty and was drafted into the U.S. Army in January 1964.
After eight weeks of basic training and eight more weeks of advanced infantry training, Robert spent eight days on the USS Darby traveling from New York to Germany.
“Most of the men spent the majority of the trip seasick,” Robert said of the trip across the Atlantic.
Robert made it through okay. And this Friday, as he’s honored by Honor Flight Maine and heads to Washington, D.C., he’ll be taking another trip with military veterans. This time it’ll be by plane.
Honor Flight chooses veterans to go on the trips via a ranking method. According to Honorflightmaine.org, “Veterans are flown on a ‘first-come, first-served basis.’ Within the applicants, top priority is currently given to World War II veterans and all other veterans with terminal illness. Our second priority is to Korean War veterans and then Vietnam War veterans.”
This year, Honor Flight Maine has six trips planned for a total of approximately 250 veterans. Sergeant Robert Moore was lucky enough to be chosen as one of those veterans.
“I feel honored and very excited to be going on this trip,” Robert said.
ROBERT’S SERVICE AND THE FIRE OF ‘47
Born at MDI Hospital, the trip to Germany in 1964 was the first time that Robert had lived anywhere off of Mount Desert Island other than when his childhood home burned down in the fire of 1947. Robert’s family lived on the west side of Glen Mary Road, in Bar Harbor, “about the fourth house in off of Cromwell Harbor Road” and it was the last house on Glen Mary Road to burn.
Six years old at the time, Robert remembers standing in the middle of the road watching the leaves and smoke swirl around in the wind. While his father was off operating a bulldozer to combat the fire, Robert and his family jumped in “somebody’s” car and left the island. His family spent that winter in Milo before purchasing a new home in Salisbury Cove and returning to MDI.
Of course, life on MDI and life in U.S. Army barracks in Baumholder, Germany, where Robert was stationed in 1964-65, do not compare. There is a lack of privacy, an abundance of regimented lifestyle, and in Robert’s case, no kitchen facilities and self-service heat. All of the barracks rooms had multiple beds in them, some had 8-10 beds and some had 2-3 beds.
No matter the size of your room, it contained a coal-fired stove that was the heat source for the room. The soldiers had to go into the basement of the barracks to get their own coal and most had to figure out how to get the coal to light, which could be very challenging. The basement also held a larger coal-fired furnace that was the central heat for a very small portion of the building. The coal was separated into two bins: one bin for the large furnace, the good quality coal and one bin for the bunk room heaters, the not so good quality coal. According to Robert, there was never anyone in the basement, so the better-quality coal seemed to disappear at a disproportionate rate.
Robert was a fire plotter in a mechanized infantry unit. His unit was all armored, track mounted vehicles and consisted of four “gun” vehicles and a command vehicle. Robert worked in the command vehicle and his job was to assist the mortar operators in the gun vehicles with getting their rounds on target.
Since there was no conflict in Germany at the time, Robert’s life was training and preparedness. When his unit wasn’t in the field on training missions, they were at the barracks spending most of their time in the motorpool, making sure that all of the vehicles and equipment were ready for battle.
“It was a life experience that I couldn’t envision prior to having done it,” Robert said of his time in the Army.
Being an “older” soldier at the ages of 21 and 22, Robert made the rank of sergeant (E-5) within a year. He was technically, on paper, a specialist (E-4) due to time in grade standards, but he did the job of and carried the responsibilities of a sergeant and was allowed to wear sergeant stripes on his uniform.
Robert’s age and maturity most likely benefitted him when it came time to complete his enlistment. In the second year of his two-year tour of duty, Robert watched as many 18- and 19-year-old soldiers began to get inducted and got shipped to Germany. He watched as many of those gung-ho “kids” quickly reenlisted so that they could go to Vietnam, which was heating up and where the U.S. was beginning to send more and more soldiers.
When his tour of duty was coming to an end, Robert’s company commander pleaded with him to reenlist and said, “All we need is you people.”
Robert’s smartly replied, “Yes, I am sure that you do, but I don’t really want to go where I think they are going to send me.”
Had Robert made a different choice and stayed in the army with the increasing possibility of going to Vietnam, the trip that he is making tomorrow may have had very different implications for him. On April 26, Robert will be joining approximately 40 other veterans, from all branches of the military, on an all-expenses paid journey to Washington, D.C., to visit many of the war memorials in our nation’s capital.
ROBERT’S LIFE ON MDI
Thanks to Honor Flight Maine, a nonprofit, fully volunteer organization, Robert and those other veterans will be flying out of Portland on a chartered plane for a full day of memorial viewing on Saturday and then returning to Maine on Sunday.
“I am looking forward to it very much,” he said about his upcoming trip.
Once again, Robert and those other veterans will get to come home.
Home for Robert is a quaint ranch-style house in Mount Desert that is surrounded by old farmland and few neighbors. He and his wife Kay have lived there for just shy of 50 years after Kay’s family, who owned the original farm and land, offered to give them a piece of the property. They built the house themselves, with the help of generous friends, neighbors, and family. This happened after they lived elsewhere on the island for the almost 10 years after Robert returned from Germany.
Having been married for 58 years this year, the couple has raised a family, retired, and continue to be a part of the community by volunteering at the Common Good Café and volunteer work, regular attendance, and membership at a local church, where Robert is a trustee. Robert has also been a member of the Northeast Harbor Post of the American Legion for 50 years, having held every position available.
THE HONOR FLIGHT TRIP
When Robert was promoted to sergeant in Germany, one of his new duties was to train soldiers on special topics such as how to survive being a prisoner of war and how to escape from a leaking and flooding armored vehicle. While designed to be waterproof and able to traverse bodies of water, sometimes gaskets failed or doors weren’t secured properly and the vehicles would take on water and back then they had no personal flotation devices on board. According to Robert, once the vehicles started to take on water, you had to wait until the water reached a certain level inside to be able to open any of the doors due to the pressure of the water from the outside.
From his barracks room, he could see the training pond where the armored vehicles would be partially submerged and the soldiers would train to escape them. Robert knew that a couple of soldiers drowned in the pond during these trainings, due to failure to exit, because they couldn’t swim, or some other tragedy. Robert said, “I didn’t inquire into it, because I didn’t want to know.”
Perhaps that lack of inquiry helped Robert feel safer when he was sealed inside one of those vehicles crossing a body of water. In fact, Robert’s unit “swam” the Rhine River sealed in those machines twice during his deployment.
Maybe, on Saturday, if Robert knows their names, he can look for those soldiers who didn’t make it home alive from Germany. After all, being in the military is a dangerous job with the risk of the ultimate sacrifice even if you aren’t fighting. He will definitely be looking for the name of a dear family friend who was killed in Vietnam and an uncle who was killed in WWII.
Today, Robert and his wife will travel to Portland and stay the night at the Embassy Hotel, once again, paid for by Honor Flight Maine. At a cost of approximately $1,000 per veteran, Honor Flight Maine fully funds these trips: the chartered flight, the hotel rooms, the meals, and the travel within D.C. The veterans need not even bring money unless they want to purchase souvenirs or something extra.
Even though she will be staying with him in the hotel Thursday night, Kay does not get to go to Washington with Robert. While every veteran must have a guardian with them Honor Flight has a strict “no spouse” rule to help the veterans focus on the experience. Robert’s guardian will be the couple’s youngest son.
The guardians are responsible for their charges, of course, but are also responsible for the wheelchair that every veteran gets assigned for the trip. While many of the veterans have a need for the wheelchair, some of the healthier ones, like Robert, do not. However, Honor Flight wants everyone to be as equal as possible so they all get a wheelchair. Plus, it means the veterans always have a seat if necessary, and it will place everyone at the same height for memorial viewing.
Friday morning, the Moores will go to the airport. Honor Flight makes a deservedly big deal out of every aspect of the trip and that includes big sendoff, an even bigger reception home on Sunday, and activities throughout the trip, especially on the flight. Apparently, the different military branches get pitted against one another in games during the flights, and if you have ever been in the military, you know that branch superiority is always a big deal and bragging right to be earned.
THE PAST CREATES CURRENT VOLUNTEER OPPORTUNITIES
One of Robert’s favorite pastimes is volunteering for the Downeast Scenic Railroad in Ellsworth. Robert volunteers every Saturday, weather permitting, and often on weekdays as well. Not just any volunteering, but as a heavy equipment operator, helping rehabilitate the old tracks and trains.
That kind of makes sense considering his past. He was in a mechanized infantry unit, which often loaded their armored, tracked vehicles onto train cars to go on training missions in Germany and he worked for Harold MacQuinn’s for over 50 years and retired from there, after doing every job they had, from running all of the heavy equipment to supervising multiple quarry operations around the state.
MacQuinn’s was pretty much Robert’s only job other than working at the High Seas Restaurant in Bar Harbor before he could drive. According to Robert, back then most all of the teenagers had summer jobs and his was cracking and picking lobsters at the restaurant.
Many of the veterans who get chosen to go on the Honor Flight Maine trips have never had the opportunity to visit the memorials in Washington D.C. before. Robert has been to D.C. in the past but said, “I am really excited about going on an honor flight and haven’t been to D.C. in a long time and am looking forward to seeing new memorials and ones that I haven’t seen before.”
Robert found out about Honor Flight Maine when he learned that a fellow community member and friend had gone on one. After investigating the program online, he decided to apply and see if he would get chosen.
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