USS Ulvert M. Moore

Ulvert Mathew Moore, born on 26 August 1917 at Williamson, W.Va., enlisted in the Naval Reserve on 15 October 1940 at Washington, D.C., and served as a seaman 2nd class until appointed an aviation cadet on 14 January 1941. After flight training at Jacksonville and Miami, Fla., into the summer of 1941, Moore then received advanced carrier training at Norfolk, Va.

Assigned to Torpedo Squadron (VT) 8, embarked in Hornet (CV-8), soon thereafter, Moore was killed in action on 4 June 1942, during the Battle of Midway. Flying a Douglas TBD-1 Devastator , side number T-8 (BuNo 0324) Ens. Moore and ARM3c W.F. Sawhill, his radiio gunner, perished in VT-8's gallant torpedo attack, led by Lt. Cmdr. John C. Waldron, against the Japanese carrier Akagi of the Midway-bound task force under Vice Admiral Nagumo Chuichi. Moore was awarded a posthumous Navy Cross for pressing home his attack despite being grimly aware that VT-8 had neither fighter cover nor enough fuel to return to Hornet. However, the sacrifice of the torpedo squadrons was not in vain. The attack drew down the Japanese combat air patrol and left the skies above open for the attack of the dive bombers which soon crippled three Japanese carriers on the first day of the battle (the fourth carrier would be mortally wounded that afternoon) and thus paved the way to an American victory.

Ulvert M. Moore (DE-442) was laid down on 2 December 1943 at Houston, Tex., by the Brown Shipbuilding Co.; launched on 7 March 1944; sponsored by Mrs. L. E. Moore, mother of Ens. Moore; and commissioned on 18 July 1944, Lt. Cmdr. Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jr., USNR, the son of the President, in command.

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From the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships, compiled by the Naval History and Heritage Command (Ulvert M. Moore (DE-442)). A work of the United States Government, in the public domain.