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<p>The only son of Ilna Force and Wilfred Hamilton Moody and brother of Ilna (now Mrs. Robert Perkins), <em>Alfred Judson Force Moody</em>, the quiet, friendly, capable “Number One” graduate in the “Black Class of 1941," who shocked all the Engineers at June Week by going into the Cavalry, entered the world in New Haven, Connecticut on 4 March 1918.</p>
<p>After a normal and happy boyhood, Al entered the Army at Fort H.G. Wright and proceeded to the area prep school at Fort Preble, Maine. Upon winning an appointment in the competitive exams, “Ace” marched up the long hill to join E Company and spend four eventful years as a crack fencer, cadet officer, instructor, horseman and an all around friendly, warm, and down-to-earth person, respected and admired by faculty and students alike.</p>
<p>After graduation, he married Jean Enwright, whom he had known since childhood, and set off for the wilds of Kansas and the horse cavalry. When the big war arrived, they found themselves, after a little bouncing around in the deep South, back at West Point—Al teaching and Jean producing attractive daughters. With some effort, Al managed to get away in time to participate as a SHAEF planner in Europe and China-Burma-India and then with the troops in Okinawa and Korea before it was all over.</p>
<p>Upon returning, he easily acquired a Masters Degree at Yale before attacking the Pentagon, where he eventually wound up in the Army Chief of Staff’s Office. Finally, freed, he and Jean boned up on their French and took Paris in their stride at the European Command Headquarters. In his usual efficient manner, Al organized himself off the staff into the command of a tank battalion in Germany, with which, in due course, he rotated back to Fort Carson, Colorado. Army War College and another tour in the Office of the Chief of Staff followed, and the Moody clan by now had reached a total of four attractive daughters—all with names beginning with J—and a fierce fraud of a Labrador named Shylock.</p>
<p>By this time they had assisted the local mortgage brokers’ income by buying a home in nearly Virginia with more yard than bargained for. Al then managed to be shipped to Korea to command a Brigade, and lean and the girls remained to leam more about power mowers.</p>
<p>Upon his sudden return—his tour being cut short by the Chief of Staffs request-he went immediately to work as the Military Assistant to the powerful Mr. McNamara, the Secretary of Defense. The job and the hours were man killing, but Al, in his usual quiet, efficient, and firm manner, became an extremely valued and trusted member of the McNamara top level family. As a result of his past splendid record plus his outstanding and dedicated performance for several years for the Secretary, he was promoted to General Officer in July 1966. In March 1967, after a short session at Fort Rucker to leam to fly helicopters, he was rewarded by being assigned as the Assistant Division Commander of the 1st Cavalry Division in Vietnam, working with his old friend and classmate, Jack Norton.</p>
<p>It was in this position, one he dearly loved, since he was again with troops in a command assignment, that he was suddenly stricken, while in his quarters writing a letter to Jean, with an unexpected, massive heart attack, and died, almost immediately, in the arms of his aide and the local surgeon.</p>
<p>On 24 March 1967, Al was buried in Arlington with full military honors, attended by his wonderful family, classmates, and friends by the score, including almost all of the top personnel of the Department of Defense and the Department of the Army, who had come to know, like, and respect him.</p>
<p>On the 20th of March, Easter Sunday, his comrades placed a plaque in his memory on the altar of the 1st Cavalry Division Memorial Chapel as a part of the dedication ceremony at An Khe, Vietnam.</p>
<p>Jean and the girls are continuing to serve and carry on the Moody esprit here in the Washington area. Jean and youngest daughter, Joy, are maintaining the homestead. Joan uses it as a base of operations to attend a nearby college, heading toward a journalism career. Jay is married to an Army Lieutenant stationed here and has recently made Jean a grandmother, and eldest daughter Judith, married to an Annapolis Marine Captain, is here awaiting his return from his second Vietnam tour.</p>
<p>The memory of Al will live on for all of us who knew him as a quietly brilliant, down-to-earth, practical leader and a friendly, efficient, and warm person, who could adjust to any situation or level of society with ease and sincerity. His family, the Class, the Army, and our country have all lost an unusually gifted officer and gentleman.</p>
<p><em>-JMJR-&#39;41</em></p>
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