MOORE-EUGENE

KILLED  IN  ACTION  -  USS SCAMP  -  11/16/1944

Eugene Sturm Moore was reportedly born December 21, 1918, in Barrackville, West Virginia, and entered the Navy from that state.  Readily available historical records reveal little concerning him in addition to listing him as one of the 83 crewmembers of the submarine USS Scamp who were lost when it was sunk during World War II.  Scamp departed Pearl Harbor on its eighth war patrol or October 16, 1944, and was last heard from on November 9.  Review of Japanese naval records following World War II revealed that on November 11, a Japanese patrol plane bombed what appeared to be oil trails left by a submarine in the area where Scamp was operating.  The results of the attack were unknown to the Japanese.  On November 16, 1944, two attacks in the nearby area were made by Japanese patrol boats on a suspected submarine which resulted in a large underwater explosion and the appearance of suspected submarine debris on the surface.  Subsequent study of the evidence indicates that Scamp was probably the submarine involved, sustained serious damage in the initial attack leaving her incapable of transmission facilities, and while attempting to leave the area the damage to Scamp become progressively more serious as she absorbed each successive attack and was sunk on November 16, 1944.

No remains of any of the Scamp’s crew were recovered and the name of LTJG Eugene Sturm Moore is inscribed on the Courts of the Missing at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu, Hawaii.  LTJG Moore was survived by his wife who he married in July 1944.  They had no children, his wife never remarried, and she passed in February 2017.

Submitted by Roy A. Mosteller, USNR (Ret)