The Boerne Star is marking Veterans Day with a profile of Bryden E. Moon. Moon left his family's farm in Maryland during the Great Depression and enlisted in the Army Air Corps. He was assigned to Langley Field, Virginia, on Dec. 7, 1937.
Moon was stationed in Hawaii when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. He said he was at Fort Shafter that morning after a cast party, and that his unit was told to get their guns before the attack was confirmed by radio reports. He later completed Officer Training School and flight school, was assigned to the 54th Flight Squadron in Orlando, Florida, and was promoted to first lieutenant on Jan. 21, 1944.
Moon took part in the D-Day invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944, as a radar intercept controller. The following year he was in the Pacific theater and received the Bronze Star for an April 2, 1945, incident in which a U.S. pilot bailed out. His son, Boerne resident Bryden Moon Jr., said his father rarely talked about his missions. The family compiled a 28-page booklet about his life.