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Soviets ever invaded Europe. His first marriage was two weeks before his surprise orders for flight school—and Operation Desert Shield began that month, too, in August 1990. “My wife convinced herself that I’d never come home,” he said. When Desert Storm ended in 1991, Brian Moore left the Guard and became a teacher in Texas. In 1994, he began graduate school at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, studying for a master’s in environmental earth sciences and teaching part time at Wootton High School in Rockville and Georgetown Visitation Preparatory School in Washington, D.C. Then, another grad student who flew hurricane planes for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration told him that the Coast Guard was looking for pilots. All looked good talking to the recruiters, he said, until they said they only took recruits up to 30 years old—Brian Moore was 33 at the time. Despondent, he began walking out the door when the recruiter piped up, “Too bad you’re not an environmental manager.” His master’s work qualified him for a direct commission and dropped the age limit, just as it would for those with law, medical or engineering degrees.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE MOORE FAMILY
Specialist Brian Moore at Fort Rucker in Alabama on the flight line.
“I had no idea what other things the Coast Guard did,” said Brian Moore. “Besides the obvious search and rescue stuff, everything the EPA (United States Environmental Protection Agency) does, we do out to 200 miles on sea. Everything OSHA (Occupational Safety & Health Administration) does on shore, we do at sea.” Since then, he has worked as a mechanical engineer, oilrig inspector and, today, disaster support liaison to FEMA.
Lt. Cmdr. Brian Moore is the third generation of his family to serve.
Capt. Daniel Moore Retired U.S. Marine Corps Brian Moore’s father Daniel is now 76. He and his wife Nancy live in Montgomery Village, Md. Daniel Moore had an exciting time in the service, joining right out of col-
lege in 1958. Serving in communications at the 2nd Marine Division and then at the 1st Infantry Regiment, he then volunteered for an extra year during the Berlin Crisis. Nancy Moore is a retired civilian scientist with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Daniel Moore has a distinct early memory of December 1941. Pearl Harbor had been bombed and he ran out of his house hollering, “We’re at war! We’re at war.” “I didn’t know what that was at the time, but I knew it was a big deal,” he said. “I got in right after Korea and just missed Vietnam, getting out in 1963,” said Daniel Moore. After his service, he worked for the Navy’s Bureau of Ships, then RCA and IBM. Along other achievements, he worked on the Space Shuttle Program in Texas. In October 1962, during the Cold War, Daniel Moore was based at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina during the Cuban missile crisis, “a few hours from Cuba by parachute,” he said. He was reading the intelligence coming out of Cuba and personally decoded the operations order regarding the crisis. “We knew what was going on and it didn’t look good,” he said. He volunteered to join an invasion battalion and his Marines were on full alert, with everything packed for combat. “Everyone went out and got their boots resoled.” The 13-day standoff ended with an agreement between
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Honoring Our Veterans - Advertising Supplement
November 2012