Sometimes the work we do with the story of Bravo Company, 1/26, resonates in unexpected places.
Recently, I received the text below from someone who lost a friend, a Marine named Wayne Moore, who served with Bravo at Khe Sanh. Wayne was killed in action—for which he was posthumously awarded a Silver Star for valor—on what has become known as the Payback Patrol of March 30, 1968.
Wayne Moore’s photo on the Vietnam Veterans Wall of Faces
Betty and I thought it worth sharing the message we received.
Hi,
I recently watched your documentary on the Battle of Khe Sanh and was amazed at what I had learned.
I knew one of the Marines mentioned several times that was KIA on 3/30/1968; his name was Wayne Moore. After 50 years I finally found out what had happened to the man that meant so much to myself and my family.
My Mom and Dad worked with Wayne in a furniture shop and were very impressed by him. So impressed we asked him to dinner a few times and then asked him to live with us in our home in Plymouth MA.
He dated my sister Linda and they were later married.
He was an extremely talented musician (played a Burns of London guitar) and played in a band as lead guitarist and vocalist. He was amazing.
Wayne Moore, center, playing his guitar,before joining the Marine Corps. His brother-in-law, John Hammer, is the drummer on the left. Photo courtesy of John Hammer.
I was a few years younger than him and he was like a big brother. He changed my life in ways that are still with me today, over 60 years later.
When he was KIA, my sister was devastated along with myself and parents. He was a figure larger than life and his death shocked us to our core.
I am the only remaining person of the people I mentioned and am now the only one that knows what happened on the day of his death in 1968.
I will be forever grateful to you and the fellow Marines that helped to make this project, especially Steve Wiese who seemed to know him the best.
If you could forward this to Steve so he can add these things to Wayne’s memory, I would truly appreciate it.
Steve Wiese. Photo courtesy of Betty Rodgers.
Again, thank you for your efforts to bring the enormity of the Battle of Khe Sanh to life. Hearing his name and how he was killed was something that means a great deal to me.
John Hammer
Sometimes I wish that we could move beyond the seemingly eternal nature of the story of Bravo Company at Khe Sanh, and put those long ago events behind me, but getting messages like Mr. Hammer’s makes the ongoing efforts worthwhile.
Here is a link to Wayne Moore’s page on the Wall of Faces: http://www.vvmf.org/Wall-of-Faces/34976/WAYNE-P-MOORE.
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On a separate subject, we wish to announce that Bravo Company’s Skipper, the late Lieutenant Colonel Ken Pipes, will be interred at Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery in San Diego, California, on August 24, 2018 at 10:00 AM.
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BRAVO! is now available in digital form on Amazon Prime.
This link will take you directly to BRAVO!’s Amazon Prime site where you can take a look at the options for streaming: In the US you can stream at https://amzn.to/2Hzf6In.
In the United Kingdom, you can stream at https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07BZKJXBM.
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If you or your organization would like to host a screening of BRAVO! in your town, please contact us immediately.
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DVDs of BRAVO! are available. Please consider gifting copies to a veteran, a teacher, a history buff, a library, a friend or family member. For more information, go to https://bravotheproject.com/store/.
BRAVO! has a page on Facebook. Please “like” us and “share” the page at https://www.facebook.com/Bravotheproject?ref=hl.
