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Picking up where he left off: Col. follows in father's footsteps

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Alexandria Mosness
  • 20th Fighter Wing Public Affairs
SHAW AIR FORCE BASE, S.C. --  The young colonel sits at the head of the wing conference table with an aura of humbleness. When he talks, he does not raise his voice, but his confidence soothes those around him as they nod in agreeance with his words. The nervous buzz in the room before is gone as soon as the brown haired commander's smile puts everyone at ease.

It might surprise those in the room that 22 years ago, this same man was a little timid about going to the Air Force Academy in Colorado, because he had never flown by himself.

Things sure changed in those 22 years.

Col. Charlie Moore, 20th Fighter Wing commander here, was recently selected for promotion to the rank of brigadier general.

"I was actually totally shocked when I heard the news," Moore exclaimed. "I didn't know when the results were supposed to be. I didn't even know that I was competitive. I was legitimately shocked."

The shock might have hit Moore, but for his mother and father, they always knew.

"They were always very confident and they knew it was going to happen," he added. "That doesn't mean that I thought it would. My dad is not an outwardly excitable guy, but he was extremely excited to hear the news."

My parents have been very optimistic, Moore continued.

"I always thought he would be a general," said his father, Army Col. (ret.) Charles Moore, Sr. "He has always shown the attributes. He is well versed in being fair and liked. He can be firm when he wants to be, but he takes everybody's feeling into consideration. I'm not surprised he was picked to be general. I'm pleased, and I think there is more to come."

Moore's father is a highly decorated helicopter pilot, who served 22 years in the Army, so the military has been a family tradition.

"He's never discussed [reaching the same rank as me], but I would hope those were his feelings," the retired colonel added. "He never said, 'Oh, I'll make general.' He didn't discuss it. He went out and did the job, and normally when you do a good job, you are rewarded for it. He's done those things that the Air Force requires you to do."

Recently the 20th FW commander took his father on a tour of the base, and his father saw first hand the way people feel about his son.

"I can see the people around the base and how they feel about him," the Vietnam veteran added. "Without saying anything, they salute and they just feel real good about him. That's a good sign. I think he does really care about everyone. You can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool them all, all the time. He's got that genuine approach that really cares about people. They sense it."

Moore has 22 years in the Air Force, the same amount of time in when his father retired. But the only reason Charles Moore, Sr. hung up his boots was because his parents were sick. He was an only child, so he had to come back to take care of them. There were just no ifs, or ands about it, he explained.

It was this same family principle the younger Moore saw at an early age, that he has carried throughout his military career.

"I absolutely feel like I am finishing his work," he said. "There is no doubt. I hope my parents both feel this way too. You don't do anything in our Air Force or life of significance by yourself. So, it takes a team here in the 20th Fighter Wing, and it takes a team with your family, your immediate and extended family. They laid the groundwork for any success I've had."

"When we pin on a star, the whole family is pinning on a star," he enthusiastically said.

He is quick to clarify his time in the Air Force was never about making rank.

"My parents always taught my sister and I to concentrate on the immediate job at hand," the commander said. "It wasn't about making rank; it was about working hard and doing the job the way it should be done. That's what they taught us. They taught us if you did the right things for the right reasons, everything else with take care of itself."

Throughout his military years, Moore has closely followed two lessons his parents taught him.

"One was doing the job and doing it right," he continued. "The other I learned while spending long laborious hours working on my grandparents' farms. If you don't want to do manual labor the rest of your life, go out and get an education, so you can decide what you want to do."

However, the military was the furthest thing from the young Moore's mind at the beginning of high school. It was something my dad always kept bringing up, but I wasn't interested until my later years in school, he said.

"I saw what service was from my parents, and I thought it was extremely important, Moore added. "I saw the positive benefits it had for them, how it made them feel and what they got out of it from their family serving the country."

"So that is really what pushed me in that direction; that, and a very persistent dad," he said with a smile.

Moore chose to follow in his father's footsteps one more time by becoming an F-16 pilot.

"I was always interested in aviation because my dad was a helicopter pilot," he said. "It always fascinated me. Helicopters were too slow to my liking. I was looking for something a little faster."

And the wing commander has never looked back at his decision to join.

"After I got into it and saw how much I really enjoyed it and how rewarding serving is, I just never thought about doing something else," Moore said. "My attitude turned into if they will let me keep doing this, I'll keep doing it. I don't know if I ever thought I would make it a career, it just kind of happened."

While the father and son's life have parts that mirrored each other, they still have some differences.

"I think he is better than I am," said Moore, Sr. "He has a better style. He has a more gentle and congenial style. The Army is a little rougher than the Air Force. We are alike, but different. He has the one up of me on that."

One other common ground they share is their combat flying history. The younger Moore has approximately 630 flying combat hours and his father has about 2,000.

"My combat flying doesn't compare to his," said the younger Moore. "Being a helicopter pilot in Vietnam for two tours, being shot down numerous times, seeing and facing the things he had to face is no comparison to what I've experienced."

But these experiences did bring the pair closer.

"When I started having more combat experiences, especially a couple trips where I was stationed and working out of Iraq made me better able to understand the experiences he had. It made it easier for us to relate to each other and I think opened him up. I started hearing stuff I hadn't heard before my entire life. I think he understood consciously or not that I would understand it better."

"We haven't much talked about our experiences," said the older Moore. "I don't relish the idea of talking about combat. . . maybe we should talk about it one day."

The commander said he understands why he and his father haven't talked about their war experiences in depth.

"I think when it ultimately gets down to it, he said. "The folks who are really concerned about serving, its not something that they feel like they have to sit around and talk about. Loss of life is nothing ever to take lightly. I think people who serve for the right reasons are really comfortable in their own skin and don't really want to talk about it."

Moore thinks none of that wisdom could have been gained without his parents.

When I reflect back on it, I can see what they taught us and what my parents did for us. It was a really hard work ethic, and this is what I hope to pass to my son, Charles Walker Moore, one day, he continued.

"He is still pretty young," the younger Moore said. "I already hear words coming out of my mouth that used to come out of my father's. There is no doubt you fall back on what is instilled in you, which came from your parents. In this case, I am extremely fortunate that I had great parents who gave me a lot of things to fall back on."

The fondest memory Moore has of his father happened when he saw his dad flying helicopters, he said. He felt in awe and excited about what his dad was doing and could do. It was just intriguing.

More than two decades later, the roles are reversed, and it's father that is saying these same things about his son.

"It's a delight to see him excel, his father said. "I can't wait to salute him when he puts on general."

For the 20th FW commander, the rank of brigadier general isn't just a pay raise and more responsibility; pinning on that one star is a symbol of a family legacy.