'We Serve' explains what happens 'after the flag'

Photo By Tim Hipps | Spc. Elise Baldwin, a Houston native stationed at Fort Polk, La., is surrounded by performers during a dress rehearsal April 15 for the 2015 U.S. Army Soldier Show "We Serve," which opens with April 17 and 18 performances at the historic Fort Sam Houston Theatre in San Antonio. (U.S. Army photo by Tim Hipps, IMCOM Public Affairs)  

SAN ANTONIO, TX, UNITED STATES

04.20.2015

Story by Tim Hipps 

U.S. Army Installation Management Command         

SAN ANTONIO -- The film "We Were Soldiers" not only inspired the script of the 2015 U.S. Army Soldier Show "We Serve," it also documented a change in the way survivors of fallen Soldiers were notified of the loss of their loved ones.

Julia Compton Moore, wife of retired Lt. Col. Hal Moore, was depicted in the movie by actress Madeleine Stowe. Her efforts in the aftermath of the Battle of Ia Drang Valley prompted the U.S. Army to establish survivor support networks and casualty notification teams.

A native of Fort Sill, Oklahoma, Compton was the only child of Col. Louis J. Compton and Elizabeth Boon Compton. At age 12, she began a lifelong journey of experiencing the separation and risk of loss in war. Her father fought in World War II. Her husband served in both the Korean and Vietnam Wars. One of her sons fought with the 82nd Airborne Division in Panama and the Persian Gulf War.

She graduated from Chevy Chase Junior College in Chevy Chase, Maryland and attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill prior to marriage. Wherever her husband was stationed, she served as a Brownie and Girl Scout Leader and Cub Scout Den Mother. She also volunteered with the Red Cross in Army hospitals. She supported daycare centers and worked with wives clubs to ensure that better care was provided for enlisted Soldiers and their families.

Moore was a major proponent of Army Community Service organizations that are now a permanent fixture on Army installations to assist Soldiers and their families as they settle into new duty stations.

The Ia Drang Battle was the first major ground engagement involving U.S. forces in Vietnam. At that time, the Army had not established an adequate system of notifying the next of kin of fallen warriors. Instead, the telegrams were delivered by taxi cab drivers, as depicted in the movie "We Were Soldiers."

Unlike the film's depiction, Moore did not actually assume responsibility for the delivery of the telegrams. She did, however, ride along with the cab drivers and assisted in the death notifications, often grieving with the widows and families of men killed in battle. She also attended funerals of those who fell under her husband's command. Her complaints climbed the chain of commands all the way to the Pentagon, and the examples she set prompted the Army to set up notification teams consisting of a uniformed officer and a chaplain.

Moore died on April 18, 2004, and is buried at the Fort Benning Cemetery in Georgia, near her mother and father and in the middle of 7th Cavalry troops, which her husband led at Ia Drange Valley in 1965.

In 2005, the Army established the Julia Compton Moore Award that recognizes civilian spouses of Soldiers for outstanding contributions to the United States Army. The citation reads:

Mrs. Moore's actions to change Pentagon death notification policy in the aftermath of the historic battle of the Ia Drang Valley represents a significant contribution to our nation. Prior to Mrs. Moore's intervention, Pentagon policy was to notify families by a telegram delivered by cab drivers. It serves today as a shining example of one of Mrs. Moore's many contributions to the morale and welfare of the Army family.

The 2005 U.S. Army Soldier Show honors gold star families, the survivors of fallen warriors, and the support they receive from the U.S. Army Installation Management Command's Survivor Outreach Services.

"We worked with Survivor Outreach Services and actually spoke with five or six of the survivors," explained Victor Hurtado, artistic director of the Soldier Show. "I asked them: 'How do you move on?' And they said, 'We don't use that term. We use the term new normal.' And I said, 'What does that mean?' And they said, 'If we move on, that means we've left them behind. We just find a way to live with them not physically here.'"

Hurtado asked the survivors to put on paper what the "new normal" was between when they learned of their Soldier's death until now. Those words are incorporated into the "We Serve" show.

"It's what happens after the flag," Hurtado said.

• Date Taken: 04.20.2015
• Date Posted: 04.20.2015 16:28
• Story ID: 160593
• Location: SAN ANTONIO, TX, US