Jerry Moyer was born in Springfield, Missouri, in 1948, moved to Omaha, Nebraska, in 1958
and finished high school there. He worked for about a year after school, and then enlisted in the
Army in 1967 before the draft caught up with him. He took signals training and learned to string
telephone wires, and was sent to Germany for a year and a half. He served with a mechanized
infantry battalion in the 4th Armored Division at Crailsheim. He enjoyed life there and did well,
and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in 1969, which entailed a change of his specialization
form signals to infantry, which in turn made him part of a levy of troops in Germany to be sent to
fill needs elsewhere, in this case in Vietnam. He went to Vietnam in the fall of 1969, joining C
Company, 2 nd Battalion, 506 th Regiment, 101 st Aiborne Division, in November. He recalls
operating in or near the A Shau Valley for most of his time in Vietnam, and was with his
company when the established Fire Support Base Ripcord on April 12, 1970. After about a
month building and garrisoning the base, his company rotated off and began patrolling the jungle
and hills around it. On July 1, when the North Vietnamese began bombarding the base, his
company was on nearby Hill 902, from which they could target some of the enemy mortar
positions. In the early morning hours of July 2, the North Vietnamese attacked his company’s
position on Hill 902 and overran it before being driven off. Jerry was wounded in the battle and
sent to the rear, and did not return to the field, but did complete his three years and return home
safely.