Kenny Moore receives Quilt of Valor for military service
Kenny Moore and his wife Lois hold up the Quilt of Valor he was presented with Wednesday during a meeting of the history club.
BILL BULEY/Press
COEUR d’ALENE — Kenny Moore’s military career spanned nearly three decades.
He earned two Purple Hearts and a Silver Star.
He served three tours of duty with the Marines in Vietnam.
He went to China with President Richard Nixon’s delegation in 1972.
He traveled the world and visited U.S. embassies.
So, yes, the retired USMC Lt. Col. has seen it all. Little surprises him.
But Wednesday morning, the Hayden man didn’t know what to say when presented with the Quilt of Valor.
“I am speechless. Speechless,” he repeated.
“That is a first time,” added a member of the History Club, which met at IHOP, where the presentation took place before about 30 people.
“I am amazed,” said Moore, smiling while wearing an aloha shirt. “Absolutely amazed. And overwhelmed.”
Charlotte Carstensen, one of the presenters and a regular at the History Club, said the Quilt of Valor goes to veterans for their service and valor. Each quilt is handmade.
“Every one of them,” she emphasized.
Nationwide, more than 250,000 Quilts of Valor have been gifted to “returning service men and women touched by war.” They are to serve as “tangible reminders of appreciation and gratitude to service members.”
The quilts are described as “lifetime awards, stitched with love, prayers and healing thoughts.”
Carstensen said the North Idaho group has helped make and present several quilts. Moore is well deserving, she said.
“He’s a good friend,” she said.
Moore, who also served with Gen. James Mattis, the former commander of troops in Iraq, said his military career was “priceless.”
“I would have done it for nothing,” he said. “It was the most wonderful experience of my life. I met wonderful people. We did great and wonderful things.’
He said he rubbed shoulders with “some of the very best people I have ever met.
“Great-hearted young men,” he added.
Moore and his wife, Lois, who was there, have been married 31 years. His business card, which features the American flag, describes him as a writer, speaker and historian.
The quilt will go on a rocking chair at home he received for teaching at Tulane University.
He said he still gets emotional when reflecting on the men and women he served with in the military.
His career provided opportunities that very few people have had, and he had a chance to visit more than 100 countries to see “what this world is really about,” he said.
“None of them measures up and everybody knows that,” Moore said. “They all want to come here."
While disappointed in the state of the country today, Moore said, “We are unbelievably blessed in what we have and we should be more diligent to preserve what we do have, instead of tearing it down or burning it up.”
Moore said someone must stand up and set “unwavering issues that bring all of us into unity.
“Any bully I’ve ever seen, if you stand up to him, regardless of the consequences to you, he always will back down,” he said. “Always.”