Fort Leavenworth inducted two members into its Hall of Fame on May 3. The Hall of Fame recognizes outstanding individuals who served at Fort Leavenworth and who made significant contributions to the achievement, tradition, or history of the fort, the armed forces, or the Provisional Army of the Confederate States.
Army Lt. Gen. (retired) Harold G. Moore and Lt. Col. Boyd M. (Mac) Harris, deceased, were inducted into the Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Lewis and Clark Center. Plaques representing each of the Hall's members are displayed in the Lewis and Clark Center Atrium. Opening the ceremony, Brig. Gen. John S. Kem, Commander of the Combined Arms Center and Fort Leavenworth said the members of the hall of fame are "leaders of character who made a difference."
Moore, co-author of the book "We Were Soldiers Once, and Young," commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division during the first major battle of Vietnam in the Ia Drang Valley. The Bardstown, Ky., native graduated from West Point in 1945. He commanded two companies during the Korean War and participated in actions at T-Bone, Alligator Jaws, Old baldy, and Pork Chop Hill. Following battalion command, he commanded the 3rd Brigade, 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam, and later the 7th Infantry Division in Korea. He was a 1957 graduate of the Command and General Staff College.
Retired Army Col. David Moore accepted the honor on behalf of his father who was unable to travel from his home. "My father loved the Army. My father loved his men," said Moore. "He knew tough training was a sign of love. He pushed his men to challenge themselves." Moore led the audience to recognize three veterans of the Ia Drang valley who were in the audience.
"For all the love and admiration I have for my father, I assert that he is only half a man," said Moore. "I say this because the other half of my father is my mother [Julia Moore]. Together they were a team. Together they were whole. My mother's story, so well documented, exemplified the role so many wives took on as the casualties came home. Her education, training, and experiences amounted to her immediate estimate of the situation. I can hear her saying "Come on Julie, get it together." And with the help of many wives, they led the Army into a new era of casualty notification. It was her true joy to have the Army recognize her actions as representative of the right way to honor a Soldier's ultimate sacrifice."
"Knowing the value of weight and space in a Soldier's rucksack; it has been a great honor to see many great leaders reserve space for a paperback copy of dad's "We Were Soldiers" book, said Moore.
"Mac" Harris was born in Philadelphia and graduated from West Point in 1966. He served as a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam and was a leadership instructor at the Infantry School. After earning a master's degree from the University of North Carolina, he became an instructor at West Point in the Department of Behavioral Sciences and Leadership. He graduated from CGSC in 1981 and became one of the first staff members of the center for Leadership and Ethics. While there, he was the primary author of the 1983 revision of FM 22-100, Military Leadership. Harris incorporated historical case studies highlighting leadership and ethical problems and introduced the "Be, Know, Do" concept. He died in October 1983 the same month FM 22-100 was published.
Receiving the honor for Harris were his wife, Anne Harris, and his brother-in-law Gary Sinise. Sinise talked about how Harris and other veterans in his wife's family taught him about the military. "I credit him and the other veterans on my wife's side of the family who inspired me to do what I can for veterans today," he said. Anne Harris said her husband's early experiences as a platoon leader and company commander in Vietnam caused him to want to study leadership. "The one constant is battle is the human dimension," she quoted her husband as saying. She told how he struggled as the principle writer for the Army's leadership doctrine to bring new ideas and how he had to overcome the resistance and criticism of some seniors even though the direction of the manual was set by Army leadership. "His greatest challenge was not on a battlefield," she said. "It was trying to change a large organization."
Induction of Harris and Moore brings the Hall of Fame to 110 members. The hall is organized in eras. Brig. Gen. Henry Leavenworth and the explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark are included in the pre-Civil War era. The Civil War to World War I era sees Maj. Gen. James Bell, one of the early proponents for professional military education, and generals from North and South, Robert E. Lee, Phillip Sheridan, and William T. Sherman among others. The World War I and II era features the only American Soldiers to wear five stars, Generals of the Army Henry H. Arnold, Omar Bradley, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, and George C. Marshall. The Korea, Vietnam and Cold War era includes leaders in Vietnam Gen. Creighton W. Abrams, and Gen. William Westmoreland, Gen. William DePuy who was the first commander of the Army's Training and Doctrine Command and often credited with laying the groundwork for today's modern Army, Col. Roger Donlon who as a lieutenant was the first Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam, and Gen. Colin Powell.
Lt. Gen. Moore's "Three Rules of Combat"
Three strikes and you're not out. There is always one more thing you can do to influence any situation in your favor. Then another and then another. The more "one more things you do, the more opportunities crystalize."
There's nothing wrong when there's nothing wrong, except that there is nothing wrong. What am I doing that I should not be doing, and what am I not doing that I should be doing?
Trust your instincts! Your instincts are the product of your education, training, experiences, and personal professional development. To be able to trust your instincts is to create an immediate estimate of the situation supported by the confidence to act.
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