Today is Memorial Day in the United States. This is a time to remember the men and women of the military who died during military service. They may have fought in battle and fell amongst their comrades. Or died in service, whether it was the 1918 influenza epidemic, a medical condition sustained during training, friendly fire accidents, and more.
John Alexander Moore III, my third cousin, was killed on 18 Nov. 1973. He was a Hospital Corpsman 3rd Class of the United States Navy. He died at twenty-six years old. Based on the year of his death, we would expect that he died in Vietnam. He actually died in an automobile accident in California and was pronounced dead upon arrival to the hospital. He was a sailor stationed at the Moffett Field Navy Dispensary.
John's father, also named John, applied for his military marker at Tucson Memorial Park in Tucson, Arizona. He was buried under a Latin Cross (the family was Catholic) and a flat bronze marker. How John Sr. must have felt to bury his son at such a young age. John Sr. had served with the Naval Reserve as a Commissioned Warrant Officer.
I never knew John. He died years before I was even born. He's someone I discovered during my genealogy research on my extended family. His great grandmother, Catherine Dougherty, through his mother's mother's line, was the daughter of our shared 2nd great grandfather, Owen Dougherty (circa 1829 County Monaghan, Ireland - 18 Mar. 1909 Prince Edward Island, Canada). I descend through Owen's son Joseph, who was brother to John's great grandmother Catherine Dougherty.
As we gather with families at our barbeques and other gatherings, please think of people like John Alexander Moore who didn't come home to their families.
Sources:
National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, MO, USA; Applications for Headstones and Markers, 7/1/1970-9/30/1985; NAID: 6016127; Record Group Number: 15; Record Group Title: Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773-2007
Ancestry.com. California, U.S., Death Index, 1940-1997 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2000.
The Times, 19 Nov. 1973, p. 7 (https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-times/198285679))
Nice blog! So sad about the third cousin and his accident. I had a cousin who died in an accident in 1973, too. I found his story in my travels. He was a truck driver and died in Vermont. Was so sad.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, this is a great blog! Thanks for sharing!