Ronald Moos’ 92 years of life have been filled with adventure – not surprising since he said he entered the military at age 15 by fibbing about his age and served two decades in two branches of the service in two wars that took him to many parts of the globe.
Moos, who was born in Aurora in 1933 but spent most of his nonmilitary life in Yorkville, earned plenty of honors from both the Army and Air Force, including a Bronze Star during the Vietnam War and commendations for 48 missions as an aerial gunner during the Korean War.
But Moos is especially proud of his latest award: An honorary high school diploma bestowed on him by the Yorkville School District at Monday’s school board meeting.
Although Moos had received his GED in 1956 – eight years after enlisting in the National Guard following his freshman year at Yorkville High School – he told me he’d always regretted not attaining that one important milestone in life.
District officials, when hearing his request, were happy to present him with that diploma, recognizing his service to country and community and noting it’s never too late to close a chapter and honor a personal commitment.
Turns out military service runs in the family blood.
Moos lived in Aurora with his aunt and uncle Arthur E. Moos, a longtime firefighter in the city, after his father Robert joined the Marines in his 30s and served in the Pacific during World War II.
When his dad arrived home, he and his son moved to Bristol, now part of Yorkville, where “I was not the best student,” Moos readily admits, often skipping Friday afternoon classes “to make the weekend longer.”
But he “was smart enough to have a lot of fun,” Moos quipped when I caught up with him Wednesday evening for a lively conversation that covered the highlights of his 22 years in the military.
According to Moos, that career started in 1948 when he signed up with the National Guard in Aurora, saying “they didn’t even ask for certification” when he claimed to be two years older than he was.
Later, after 18 months of active duty with the Army’s 82nd Airborne, he signed on with the Air Force, eventually completing 48 missions with the 19th, 92nd and 98th bomb groups, serving as a B-29 gunner during the Korean War.
While acknowledging some of those missions were “kind of rough,” Moos told me he never felt in any danger, likely, he added, because the “younger you are” the more “invincible” you feel.
After three tours in Korea, including two during the war itself, Moos was discharged from the Air Force in 1954, then rejoined the Army, serving three years in Germany with the military police and as a member of the 7th Army Honor Guard, he said.
From 1969-70 Moos served a 12-month tour in Vietnam, assigned to radio research/communication intelligence with the Army Security Agency, he said.
In 1960, Moos met and married Caroline, his wife of 65 years, and together they raised two children: Michelle Abbott and Ron Moos Jr., a 1981 standout track athlete at Yorkville High who died two years ago.
Back in the United States after returning from Vietnam, he worked at the Army Security Agency headquarters in Arlington, Virginia. Moos retired from the Army in 1971 as a master sergeant, he said, and returned to Yorkville where daughter Michelle, 10 at the time, remembers being happy her father, “who was always overseas,” was out of the military so “we could stop moving and settle in one spot.”
Moos’ first job back home was bartending at Pine Village Steak House and Tavern near Yorkville. He quit three months before Carl Reimann gunned down five people in December of 1972 at the restaurant, including Moos’ stepbrother Bob Loftus, and John Wilson, the bartender who had taken his place.
The mass murder was “devastating … I knew everyone who was killed,” he told me.
Over the years Moos had a variety of jobs that included a scrap metal business and working at Fox Valley Mall in grounds and maintenance. He was also an active member of the Montgomery VFW, serving as captain of the honor guard, eight years on the board of directors and junior vice commander. In addition, he was past chairman of the John Steele Chapter 82nd Airborne Association and was involved with the VFW National Home for Children.
“I found my place in life,” Moos said of his military service.
He’s also proud of his two grandsons. Adam Wold, who received a Purple Heart for injuries from an IED explosion while in the Army, and Eric Moos, in the Army National Guard, followed in the footsteps of their grandfather and great-grandfather, said Michelle Abbott of her two sons who “served in Iraq at the same time.”
Abbott told me she was surprised her dad had contacted the school district about his diploma because “he had never mentioned” this personal quest throughout the years. But Moos “thought about it a lot,” he told me, adding that, even though he’s received plenty of recognition for his military efforts, “this one is big to me.”
It was a big deal for the school district, as well, with Yorkville School District Superintendent Matt Zediker describing it as “such an honor” to recognize Moos for his “service to our country and the Yorkville community.”
“It’s in moments like that,” said Zediker, “that the walls of the schools expand and bring the community together.”
While Moos says he has few regrets about joining the military so young – he did get to go to prom as a freshman because his girlfriend was a senior – he admitted getting emotional when the district handed that high school diploma to him.
“I was afraid to say something because I might start crying,” he said. “I sort of got tears in my eyes. Maybe they didn’t notice. But they were there.”
dcrosby@tribpub.com
