Army Staff Sgt. William C. Moore

Remember Our Heroes

Army Staff Sgt. William C. Moore, 27, of Benson, N.C.

SSgt. Moore was assigned to the 5th Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division, Fort Bragg, N.C.; died April 23 in Sadah, Iraq, of wounds suffered when an improvised explosive device detonated near his location. Also killed were1st Lt. Kevin J. Gaspers, Staff Sgt. Kenneth E. Locker Jr., Sgt. Randell T. Marshall, Sgt. Brice A. Pearson, Sgt. Michael L. Vaughan, Spc. Jerry R. King, Spc. Michael J. Rodriguez and Pfc. Garrett C. Knoll.

Clint Moore Remembered As One Great Guy
By STEVE REED and REECE MURPHY
Record Staff

There is shock and dismay both at the home base of the 82nd Airborne Division and in Benson, as people mourned the deadliest day of combat in the division's history since the Vietnam War.

Nine paratroopers, including Staff Sgt. Clint Moore, 27, of Benson, died and 20 others were injured Monday when two explosives-laden trucks blew up near a patrol base in Iraq's Diyala province.

One of the two suicide-bomber trucks blew up a wall on a building on base, collapsing its second floor and causing most of the soldier casualties, a U.S. military statement said Wednesday.

A civilian house was destroyed and several smaller structures collapsed in a nearby neighborhood, the Associated Press reported. A civilian hospital and a mosque about 200 yards from the patrol base also were damaged.

The deaths marked the division's largest one-day combat loss since June 1969, when 12 paratroopers were ambushed and killed in Vietnam, division spokesman Maj. Tom Earnhardt said Tuesday.

But those lives are more than numbers and Sgt. Moore, but by all accounts, was an all-around great guy.

Sgt. Moore's sister, Leanne Benson of Benson, described him as charismatic and said people were drawn to him.

"He was such a sociable, outgoing guy," Mrs. Benson said. "He loved music, he loved life. He lived his life to the fullest."

Mrs. Benson said all her brother ever talked about was joining the military and believed in its mission in Iraq.

"I want everybody to know he believed in what he was doing," Mrs. Benson said. "He was very dedicated."

Sgt. Moore's aunt, Bobbie Parrish of Benson, said are were no words to describe what it felt like to hear her nephew had been killed.

"When Clint was home he said, 'Aunt Bobbie, I won't come back,'" Mrs. Parrish said. "He knew he was heading into the worst of the fighting and felt like things were so bad over there he wouldn't make it. We're proud of him and have been all the time."

Another relative talked about Sgt. Moore's kindness.

"He was one of the best boys in the world," Sgt. Moore's aunt, Jean Barefoot of Benson, said. "I loved him as much as one of my boys. He was good to everybody and had a good heart."

Sgt. Moore returned to Iraq for his second tour of duty last August. He was scheduled to return home in January, Mrs. Barefoot said.

Cora Godwin, an English teacher at South Johnston High School, remembered Sgt. Moore as a very outgoing, well-rounded student. He graduated from South Johnston in 1998.

"He was a young man who knew even as a high school senior that he wanted a military career," Ms. Godwin said. "During his senior year, the Army band performed at the school and Clint and several other boys who planned to enter the military were recognized in the assembly."

Ms. Godwin, who lives in the Meadow community where Sgt. Moore's family lives, said everyone has been touched by his death.

"There are family members and friends of the family here at South Johnston," Ms. Godwin said. "The entire student body is aware of the importance of what he's done. South Johnston is one of the great rural, wholesome schools left where we're aware of his patriotism and appreciative of the sacrifice he made."

It will be seven to 10 days before Sgt. Moore's body arrives in Benson, Mrs. Barefoot said. Ms. Godwin said the time lapse makes the experience surreal.

"It's hard to put closure on something you've not experienced yet," Ms. Godwin said. "In the Meadow community, where Clint lived, family and friends have been rallying around."

Army Staff Sgt. William C. Moore was killed in action on 4/23/07.