LIEUTENANT WAYNE STEWART MOORE, JR., was born on April 14, 1926, in Troy, N. Y., the son of Wayne Stewart and Virginia Findlater Moore. He was killed shortly before his graduation from the Jet Fighter School at Williams Air Force Base, Arizona, when his F-80, caught fire, crashed, and exploded.

Wayne grew to manhood in the Army, since his father was an officer of Engineers, Class of '20. Beginning when he was only six years old, he spent four years as a boy at West Point and thereafter made frequent visits. West Point was always home to him and there seems never to have been a question but that he would some day be a cadet and eventually an officer, though he was sometimes troubled by doubts that he could make it. In his youth his efforts were inspired by the goal which he kept always before him.

Like so many Army boys, his early education was hampered by a succession of transfers from school to school. This he accepted without complaint as one of the necessary difficulties of life in the Army, of which he was always proud. A firm resolution to do his best in everything, in spite of the obstacles in his path, was always apparent, and later was to see him through West Point.

In 1944 he graduated from high school in Wilmington, N. C., where he made many warm friendships that were to survive the ensuing years and endure in memory, as attested by letters from his high school classmates since his death. To prepare for West Point he attended Sullivan's in Washington, where he worked so hard and so earnestly that, although certain commitments for his appointment to West Point had been revoked, he placed high enough in the keen Presidential competition that he was eventually admitted as a qualified candidate to fill a late vacancy. Thus he won through his own efforts the right to become a cadet.

As a cadet he was completely happy in the knowledge that he was a part of West Point and that he had the opportunity to measure himself by her standards and to absorb her ideals and traditions. He was deeply troubled by any event which tended to suggest anything less than complete de-votion to West Point.

Two of his classmates have written:
"Wayne put his heart and mind into everything he undertook. No one could have been around him without being impressed by his sincerity. Combined with his other fine qualities, this made him a man of whom West Point can justly be proud. Probably many people would say he was quiet, and compared to some he was, but he was an inseparable friend to those of us who had the privilege of being close to him. His subtle wit and humor were incomparable. Wayne was an idealist in personal life and religion, and his beliefs could not be shaken by either persons or events. To those of us left behind, our daily lives cannot help but be molded by our respect and admiration fot Wayne, his hopes, his dreams, and his ideals".

Wayne was never, as boy or man, one who would be classed as daring. But he chose the Air Force and, upon completion of basic training, chose jet fighters. It seems that he simply knew the kind of job he wanted to do and challenged himself to meet its requirements. When he was chosen for jet training, and again when he soloed, he was so happy, proud and confident, that his death, through no fault of his own, as far as can be determined, was doubly tragic.

His Commanding Officer wrote:
"The fact that Wayne was one of the comparatively few pilot trainees"......chosen to fly jet fighters is indicative of his high standing in his class. By his death, the Air Force lost a very capable officer and one who was destined to go far".

He was placed to rest beside his mother in the old cemetery at West Point. Six cadets from his old company, E-2, were honorary pallbearers and several classmates were in attendance. One of them wrote:
"Even in the austerity of the simple funeral rite there was present an inspirational force to spur us on to greater service. He always gave his best-always looked for the best in everyone-and usually found it".

And so Wayne in the prime of young manhood has completed the full cycle of life and rests in peace "at home" at West Point, having given his all to her and his Country and his God, while his memory, shining bright and clean, lives on wherever he has passed.

-W. B. T., Jr., E. W. W., W. S. M.

Personal Eulogy