Marine Cpl. James L. Moore

Died January 26, 2005 Serving During Operation Iraqi Freedom

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24, of Roseburg, Ore.; assigned to 1st Battalion, 3rd Marine Regiment, 3rd Marine Division, III Marine Expeditionary Force, Marine Corps Base Hawaii; killed Jan. 26 when the CH-53E helicopter in which he was riding crashed near Rutbah, Iraq. Twenty-nine Marines and one sailor also were killed.

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Soldier from Roseburg killed in Iraq chopper crash

Associated Press

ROSEBURG, Ore. — A Marine from Roseburg was among 31 soldiers killed this week when a military transport helicopter crashed in western Iraq, family members said Thursday.

Cpl. James Lee Moore, 24, is the 38th person with Oregon ties to die in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Members of Moore’s family said he had been inside the helicopter along with 29 other Marines and one sailor, all but four of whom were from a Marine Corps base in Kailua, Hawaii.

The cause of the crash is unknown. Military officials said there was severe weather in the desert the helicopter was flying through.

The Roseburg native has been in Iraq since late summer, according to the Roseburg News-Review, which first reported his death. He is a 1999 graduate of Roseburg high school.

His family heard of his death on Wednesday night, when several Marines came to their door, his stepmother, Suzanne Moore, told The Associated Press.

“It still hasn’t sunk in,” she said. “We can’t get past, ‘We regret to inform you.”’

James Moore was expected home by May or June, his stepmother said, and last spoke to his family on the phone on Christmas morning. When his time in the Marines was up, Moore had thought of going to Montana to train to become a hunting or fishing guide, his stepmother said.

“James was just an awesome kind of person,” Suzanne Moore said. “He could come over and just show up out of the blue, bring you a cappuccino and know exactly how you like it. He was really generous, really good.”

James Moore enlisted in the Marine Corps shortly after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Suzanne Moore said, following in the path of his step-brother.

“He wanted to make a difference,” Suzanne Moore said of her step-son. “He was proud of what he was doing. He thought they were doing the right things and a good job. And we support that. James would want us to support his brothers. That’s what he calls everyone fighting there.”

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Roseburg residents remember Marine slain in Iraq

ROSEBURG, Ore. — Some 1,000 friends, family members and strangers gathered Thursday to remember Marine Cpl. James Lee Moore, killed last week in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

It would have been his 25th birthday.

Gov. Ted Kulongoski told mourners that all Oregonians grieved Moore’s loss, the first Douglas County resident killed in the war.

An American flag and a Marine Corps flag flanked the casket at the Douglas County Fairgrounds.

The 1999 Roseburg High School graduate was killed along with 29 other Marines and a Navy hospital corpsman when their helicopter crashed in bad weather while they were being flown to provide security for last Sunday’s elections.

Moore had been based at Kaneohe Bay, Hawaii, and had been in Iraq since July.

He was the 38th soldier with ties to Oregon to be killed in Iraq or Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, it was reported that Sgt. Mark Warren, a member of the Oregon National Guard from La Grande, was found dead in Kirkuk, Iraq. He was the 39th.

Kulongoski, a former Marine who has attended memorial services for each of the Oregon soldiers killed in the war, read the names of nine other Oregon Marines killed in action.

He praised Moore for enlisting following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and called those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan “Oregon’s best.”

“Our hearts break with you and our prayers go with you. I promise we will never forget what James Moore meant to you,” said Kulongoski, who placed his hand on Moore’s casket.

Karen Goirigolzarri, the principal at Roseburg High School, moderated the service and drew a laugh when she said she remembered seeing Moore in the office “quite a bit.”

She described him as hardworking, independent and a person who believed in doing the right thing.

“After 9-11, that compassion for helping his family expanded to the nation,” Goirigolzarri said.

Soldiers outside the hall gave a 21-gun salute.

After the service, Brig. Gen. Raymond Byrne, acting adjutant general of the Oregon National Guard, said he was touched by the service. “It’s nice to see the support the community has given this family,” Byrne said.

Byrne and Kulongoski accompanied the family for a private inurnment service at Roseburg National Cemetery.

A portion of Moore’s cremated remains were to be placed next to his grandfather, Jesse “Alvin” Moore, with the rest spread on a hillside in Douglas County.

Kulongoski quoted from former President Abraham Lincoln, who wrote a letter to Lydia Bixby, a Boston woman who lost five sons in the Civil War. “I pray that our heavenly father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and the lost,” he read.

— Associated Press