Private Alton M. More was a Soldier in Easy Company.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Alton More was born in Casper, Wyoming on 23 April 1920. In 1942, he married a Wyoming girl. More was in the 115th U.S. Cavalry, Wyoming National Guard before joining the Paratroopers.
WWII[]
More chose to volunteer for the Paratroopers and completed his jump training at Fort Benning. He joined Easy Company, 506th PIR in the 101st Airborne as a machine gunner at Fort Bragg, and continued to train with them through Camp Shanks, and at Aldbourne, England. During his time, he developed a close friendship with Pvt. Donald Malarkey.
He jumped into Normandy on 6 June 1944, and would fight throughout the rest of the campaign. During the campaign, he would loot a lot of houses and dead German bodies. During one incident with Malarkey, he looted the dead bodies of their fallen comrades, which made Malarkey uneasy. However, More broke down and said, "let's get the hell out of here" when he found a pair of knitted baby booties. They were then pulled off the line on 9 July. Before they returned to England, More was able to sneak a motorcycle with a sidecar, and drove it around with his friend Malarkey.
Alton More firing Gordon's machine gun
More fought in Operation Market Garden in Holland from 17 September to 26 November, and would then participate in the grueling defense of Bastogne, Belgium during the Battle of the Bulge from 18 December though 20 January 1945. He would then help in the occupation of Germany, and later in Austria. More would loot everything he could find, and had a lot of souvenirs.
Among the things More found were two personal photo albums of Hitler's, which he found in Hitler's Eagle's Nest at Berchtesgaden. He had gotten into a dispute with Capt. Speirs over the photo albums, but Maj. Winters was able to transfer More from Easy Company to Battalion CP, making him his personal Jeep driver. It is said More hid the photo albums in the seat of the Jeep he drove for Major Winters. More was immediately discharged after the war's end.
Later life[]
After the war, More returned to his wife in Wyoming, who had bore him a child while he was fighting. There he became a salesman for Folgers Coffee. He loved his horses and rode them often. Altogether, he had 3 children.
More was killed when his car hit a horse seventeen miles west of Casper, Wyoming on 31 July 1958.
More was just thirty eight years old.
Trivia[]
More's last name is often misspelled "Moore." More was alone in the car when he hit the horse on the night of July 31, 1958. His mother died in May 1943 and his brother, Delbert was killed in November 1943 when the USS Liscombe Bay was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off the coast of Makin Island. He was not married to a Wyoming girl. He got married while stationed at Ft. Lewis, Washington with his Wyo Natl. Guard unit. She quickly remarried and returned to Portland, OR after his death.