Frederick Moore was born in December 1924 in Cambridge, Massachusetts and grew up in Arlington, Massachusetts during the Great Depression. Moore's father, a Canadian immigrant, worked as a carpenter. He said life during his early years was totally different, and in his opinion, in a better world than today's children know. He was close to his parents, and enjoyed playing baseball. He pointed out that kids of his day were not totally dependent on technology. Moore remembers that in 1939 his parents took him to New York City to attend the 1939 World's Fair, and during that visit he heard Prime Minister Chamberlain's [Annotator's Note: British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain] radio announcement that Great Britain was at war. At 15 years of age, he didn't consider this news to have much impact on his life; however, when Pearl Harbor was attacked, it was a different situation. He had always wanted to fly airplanes, but when he graduated high school at 17, he was too young to join the armed forces. After reaching 18 he enlisted in the Army Air Corps and was sworn in as an aviation cadet in March 1943.

Classified for pilot training, Frederick Moore was transferred from Boston, Massachusetts to California where he trained for a year to be a multi-engine pilot. He said he became "an officer and a gentleman" and a rated Army Air Force pilot at age 19. Moore was further trained as a medium bombardment pilot in the B-25 [Annotator's Note: North American B-25 Mitchell medium bomber]. At that time, the Japanese had invaded India, and the British 14th Army, with some Chinese and Indian troops, was surrounded at Imphal and Kohima in the Manipur Province of Eastern India. With only four hours of training on the equipment, Moore flew a new C-47 [Annotator's Note: Douglas C-47 Skytrain cargo aircraft] across the South Atlantic and eventually reported to Sylhet, India. There, they reloaded and air-dropped small arms ammunition and mortar shells to the marooned British, and in so doing helped them to defeat the Japanese at the battle of Imphal. Moore commented that it was the bloodiest battle for the Japanese in World War 2. From there, Moore's squadron [Annotator's Note: 9th Combat Cargo Squadron, 3rd Combat Cargo Group] was moved to Assam, in the extreme northeast of India, to resupply troops involved in the Hump operation. It was wet monsoon season, and the rain, wind and icing made navigation difficult; most of their casualties were weather-related accidents. After 13 months, 285 missions and 850 combat hours, he was shipped back to the United States in June 1945. The war in Europe had ended, and while Moore was on R&R [Annotator's Note: rest and redistribution] in Atlantic City, New Jersey, he was given a choice of discharge or a job instructing pilots on the operation of the new C-46 [Annotator's Note: Curtiss C-46 Commando cargo aircraft] aircraft. He hated the plane, and decided to leave the service.

On his return to the United States, Frederick Moore and another guy traveled through Saudi Arabia and Khartoum to Accra, Ghana. During the week they waited for a seat on an airplane, they decided to have swim suits made in order to take advantage of the beautiful beaches. Moore's suit was made out of thin cotton batik, and he felt it inappropriate to wear in front of American women soldiers. They went to the Base Exchange in search of athletic supporters, where they approached the female clerk and made their request. In response to her inquiry as to size, Moore's buddy, in his naiveté, said, "large, I guess," and the young corporal just whistled. Going over, Moore's plane flew through a swarm of locusts that splattered all over the aircraft. He couldn't see out of the windshield, and had to peer cautiously out of a side window in order to continue the flight. He also remembers that he "buzzed" the Taj Mahal. He was stunned by the poverty he witnessed during a week's leave in Calcutta, India. His crew dropped supplies to Merill's Marauders [Annotator's Note: 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)], as they marched a thousand miles through the jungles of northern Burma, and they also took the wounded out. On Christmas Day 1945, while fighting was going on in the jungle all around, Moore airdropped a plane full of crated pigs outfitted with parachutes to the British for their holiday meal. The crates broke open when they hit the ground, the pigs took off in all directions, and the English had to hunt them down for their dinner. Moore said he was young and didn't recognize the dangers. To him, it was an adventure.

Frederick Moore's scariest experience was flying a green airplane low over a green jungle and looking up to see flashes of silver, Japanese fighter aircraft flying above, with the only armament on his plane being the crew's .45 automatic pistols [Annotator's Note: M1911 .45 caliber semi-automatic pistol]. The closest he came to "not coming home" was on a mission in support of Merrill's Task Force [Annotator's Note: 5307th Composite Unit (Provisional)]. One of the forward planes in the "daisy chain" supply pattern lost a wing, as though it had been cut off with a knife. The plane rolled and was enveloped in orange flame. Moore realized they were flying through mortar fire, and understood that he had missed being hit by 30 or 40 seconds. According to Moore, flying over the Hump was nerve racking because of the thunder storms and the rough terrain that caused complex weather patterns, rendering the plane uncontrollable. The soldiers ate Spam, and Moore loved it, when he could get it in what Moore called the "forgotten war." The China-Burma-India campaign was also known as "Confusion Beyond Imagination", or "Corned Beef Indefinitely", and was on the "tail end of the supply line." Rank became a non-issue; the squadron [Annotator's Note: 9th Combat Cargo Squadron, 3rd Combat Cargo Group] worked as a team. Unfortunately, everyone caught malaria, and the soldiers' skin turned yellow from the medication.

Rather than being discharged, Frederick Moore said, officers are released from active duty. One of his most memorable experiences was having his wings pinned on his chest. Another was going to downtown Boston in his uniform on V-J Day [Annotator's Note: Victory Over Japan Day, 15 August 1945]. He joined the armed forces because of the attack on the United States at Pearl Harbor; his experience in the Army Air Forces made him grow up quickly and learn to be independent. Moore is proud of his service and the medals he recieved. He now serves as a docent at the aerospace museum, and is pleased to educate young people on the aircraft there and the work the planes did to win the freedoms they enjoy today. Moore "wholeheartedly" supports the work of The National WWII Museum in its mission to teach history.