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Three-war veteran honored at age 99

Lewistown man reflects on lifetime of service

By Brian Carson 7 min read

Submitted photo
Amund Moen, center, sits with fellow World War II veterans during a ceremony in Pittsburgh honoring the 99-year-old Lewistown man for his military service. Moen served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War and participated in the Berlin Airlift.

Amund Moen, center, sits with fellow World War II veterans during a ceremony in Pittsburgh honoring the 99-year-old Lewistown man for his military service. Moen served during World War II, the Korean War and the Vietnam War and participated in the Berlin Airlift.

LEWISTOWN - At 99, Amund Anton Moen still knows how to fit a parachute harness.

He learned the work in Hawaii nearly eight decades ago, before Germany, before the Berlin Airlift. The training never left him.

Ask what has lasted longest from his military years, and he doesn't mention a medal or citation.

He remembers the rigging.

Over the weekend in Pittsburgh, the 99-year-old Lewistown veteran was honored for military service spanning World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

Moen's reaction was considerably shorter than his résumé.

He felt "pleased and honored."

Five World War II veterans sat together for a photograph during the event. The oldest was 102. The youngest was 98. Moen, dressed in a suit, was in the middle. Over 450 people were in attendance.

Honor Flight Pittsburgh, founded in 2016, transports veterans to Washington, D.C., to visit memorials honoring their service and sacrifice. The organization gives particular recognition to veterans who served during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War, along with critically ill veterans from any service era. Honor Flight Pittsburgh has completed 17 trips and transported 761 veterans.

His daughter, Cheryl Silks, said her father was the only veteran formally honored during the event and numerous other veterans attended for the recognition. She said Moen was the only one among the five World War II veterans in the photograph who had served during three wars.

She said her father spent much of his life saying little about the past.

Silks and her siblings grew up knowing their father had served. They knew the moves and military bases that came with his career. What they didn't know were many of the stories contained in boxes of records and discharge papers.

Only later, as the family began going through his military records, did some of those stories emerge.

"We didn't know a whole lot about what Daddy did," Silks said.

Moen was born July 4, 1927, in Texas and raised in Missouri. His family still has his military registration card from those early years. His family had little money, Silks said. His Norwegian grandfather came to America as a teenager and sold horses before building a home in Missouri, where he raised 10 children.

Moen entered military service as a young man, before the U.S. Air Force became an independent branch. He later served during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.

His clearest memory of Germany is visual.

"What I remember most was all the destroyed aircraft across the street from where I was," Moen said, "and the people who were involved in the process of getting the people out of there."

History remembers the Berlin Airlift in airplanes and tonnage. Moen remembers people.

Silks said the experience remained special to her father because he believed the work helped so many people.

Recent recognition has arrived in letters and commemorative coins. A July 21 letter from Terrie Suica-Reed, Civilian Aide to the Secretary of the Army, Pennsylvania, Emeritus, cited his three-war service and participation in the Berlin Airlift. A July 17 letter signed by Secretary of Veterans Affairs Douglas A. Collins thanked Moen for his service and life's accomplishments.

Pittsburgh VFW Post 3945 also gave him a small piece cut from a retired American flag. The accompanying note explained that the flag once flew over the United States before becoming worn by the sun and wind. It asked the veteran to carry the piece as a reminder that he is not forgotten.

Moen's own measure of his service is less ceremonial.

"I'm most proud that I kept my faith in God and the fact I was never shot at," he said. "I was proud of the United States of America and the people who were there serving."

Then there was the problem with the engine flap.

Mechanics reached the engine through a cloth access flap, Moen said. In flight, the glued-down flap could tear loose and leave the aircraft unstable. The men were asked how to stop it.

Moen came up with one.

"So I thought, why not put metal over the hole and use a hinge so it can be moved to access the patch and be able to work on the planes," he said, "and then close it to keep the planes stable in flight?"

Silks said the Air Force paid her father $400 for the idea in 1948.

She said letters in his military records recommended greater advancement. Moen retired as a staff sergeant and, she said, never pushed the issue.

"He was happy having a career and able to raise his family," Silks said. "That's what mattered most to him."

Retirement didn't make Moen very good at retiring.

He spent another 23 years working at Avtex in Lewistown, Silks said. Later, he and his wife delivered newspaper bundles for The Sentinel. They loaded the bundles into their car and drove through the area during the early hours, including deliveries around Belleville.

Silks said her father continued doing that work until he was about 89.

But some stories that best explain Amund Moen never happened in uniform.

His wife developed dementia and eventually needed considerable care. The family put a hospital bed downstairs for her, but there were nights when she wanted one familiar thing.

She wanted to sleep beside her husband upstairs.

Moen wouldn't tell her no.

"If she wants to sleep with her husband, I'm getting her to bed," Silks remembers him saying.

So he put her on his back and carried her up the stairs at night.

Faith was there long after the uniform came off.

Moen has attended Calvary Bible Church in Ferguson Valley since the 1960s, Silks said, and served for years as an usher. He still attends church and Sunday school.

He also keeps moving.

In 2023, Silks said her father traveled with Honor Flight Pittsburgh to Washington to visit the nation's military memorials. The organization takes veterans to the memorials at no cost to them, giving them an opportunity to visit the places built to honor their service and sacrifice.

The family has kept photographs, letters, and memorabilia from his military life and later honors in a scrapbook, preserving pieces of a life Moen rarely talked about.

Moen has his own message for people born long after those wars became chapters in history books.

"The younger generation should know the men and women who served were proud of our country, and all gave some, and some gave all," Moen said. "Freedom comes with a cost, and they were willing to pay that price."

He still remembers how to fit the parachute harness he learned to rig in Hawaii nearly 80 years ago.

But at home, Silks talks more about his habits than his honors.

He still reads for hours and walks daily. For years, he’s told his children that if they want to keep moving, they have to keep moving.

So what keeps a man moving at 99?

"The good Lord has kept me going, and I have stayed moving even when I didn't want to."

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