1. What was the thing that got you interested in military history? What’s the story behind it?

Subscribe Today

• Subscribe to Armchair General Magazine
• Subscribe online and save nearly 40%!
 

My father (Hal Moore – Infantry) and grandfather (Louis Compton – Field Artillery) both served in the Army for a full career. I followed them intothe Army (Field Artillery) and also served 20 years. My brother just hit his 20 years and remains on active duty (Infantry). Part of professional development is to do the reading and study to learn from the successes or failures of others.

2. What, if any, computer training/experience did you have prior to starting your own site? What did you learn before starting it? What have you learned since?

I was introduced to the personal computer when I was attending a masters program in Industrial Engineering at UC Berkeley in 1983. As a result of limited time on the mainframe, they introduced the PC to us and we had to use it to solve a number of different engineering/optimization problems. That’s were I first learned to program in an arcane language called "APL". Realizing this was not really portable, I learned Turbo Pascal and wrote many applications using that language.

While in the Army, I was assigned to various jobs where I had to leverage computer and analytical skills – I was a combat simulation modeler and later became the product manager of a large command and control system – the Advanced Field Artillery Tactical Data System – the replacement to the Army’s TACFIRE system.

I started this site in 1996 using some very basic editing tools. The coverage of the topic – the Ia Drang battles – is fairly static, so the site is pretty much brochureware that expands on the visual content that did not make it into the book "We Were Soldiers Once and Young". Given the limited additional content beyond what was researched for the book, and the fact that I have a full time job elsewhere, it has not evolved.

Key thing I have learned since starting the site is that tools make technology easy – the challenge is getting the time to apply that advantage.

3. How did you come to bring your military history and computer interests together?

My father, Hal Moore, was one of the authors of the book the site supports – We Were Soldiers Once and Young. We felt this was an additional way to honor the veterans of the battle – they needed a site that they could point people to that documented this horrifyingly brutal engagement. Dad and Joe have funded the site out of their own pockets for the last 8 years – this is not a money making venture.

4. What training/experience in military history do you have?

None other than the academic exposure I received while attending West Point.

5. Has anyone helped you to build your site? In what ways, if so?

When the Mel Gibson movie based on the book (We Were Soldiers) was about to come out, Joe Galloway talked Military.com into providing some assistance. They made over the home page for me – vastly improving its look. I really appreciate their help – and that is what motivates me to redo the entire site – just need to find the time.

In the early days, the hosting provider, UnixCity.com, also provided guidance and help – nobody really was an expert in HTML back in 1996. UnixCity has been a super hosting provider – they have not raised the rates on hosting for years – even when the usage spiked as the movie came out. I believe they also want to give back to recognize the contribution of the Vietnam veteran and allow the site to have all the bandwidth it needs to get the message out.

6. Where do you live? Are there any military historical sites nearby (battlefields, museums, etc)?

I recently moved back to Northern Virginia – this area is replete with historical significance.

7. Why do you study military history?

I would not claim to study military history – I browse various topics of interest as time permits. I would hate to have to stand next to a real military historian on Jeopardy.

Help Armchair General by bookmarking to