Updated January 14.2011
Bordentown City is mourning the death of a 23-year-old former resident who was killed Wednesday January 12.2011 in Afghanistan.
Army Pfc. Ben Moore, a 2006 graduate of Bordentown Regional High School and a former firefighter and EMT with the Hope Hose Humane Fire Co., was on a mission with his unit based out of Fort Drum, N.Y., when a vehicle he was in struck an improvised explosive device, killing him and several other soldiers, his family said.
"The details are sketchy, but they were clearing IED bombs and they ran into one," said Moore's grandfather, Thomas Moore of Bordentown City.
Details about the incident were not available from the U.S. Department of Defense, which had not announced Moore's death as of Thursday afternoon.
The family was notified Wednesday, according to Hope Hose and city officials. Moore's parents live in Robbinsville, Mercer County.
Mayor Tom Lynch said city flags would remain at half-staff for 30 days in honor of the former resident and his service.
"He was an outstanding citizen," Lynch said. "You can't say enough about his positive volunteerism and attitude in life."
Hope Hose members said Moore joined the company at age 16 after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He started out as a junior member and was voted a lieutenant by the membership before he enlisted in the Army and deployed to Afghanistan, an unusual honor for a volunteer so young.
Members described him as popular and always willing to lend a hand. He spent most of his free time at the firehouse on West Burlington Street and attended nearly every anniversary, birthday and wedding celebration held in the building.
Serving his community and country were his chief interests, members said.
"He saw what happened in New York and Washington (on Sept. 11) and felt he had to get involved, which is why he became a firefighter," said Vince Torpey, past president of the fire company. "He then took it further by enlisting in the Army."
"The military is all-volunteer, so they all make the choice for whatever reason. For Ben, I think it was just a sincere desire to help and protect," Torpey added.
"He was a young guy who wanted to serve his community," Hope Hose Capt. Ken Mortello said Thursday at the firehouse. "All he wanted to do was help his community and he wanted to serve his country."
He said Moore also had a wonderful sense of humor and developed into a great leader as a firefighter.
"He was a jokester. Ben always knew how to get under your skin and make you smile," Mortello said. "If something was bothering you, he'd say something light to get your mind off it."
After joining the Army, Moore still kept in contact with his fellow firefighters. Members said he was always interested in how his friends were doing.
"He knew he was in a hell," EMS Lt. Rob Curran said. "When he would call here from overseas, he was always interested in us. It was never about him. How you were doing is all he wanted to know."
Torpey said company members were heartbroken when they learned about Moore's death Wednesday night.
"I knew him for seven years," Mortello said. "I watched him grow up."
"He was a wonderful individual," company treasurer Brian Mauggeri said. "What a waste he had to die like that."
Thomas Moore said his grandson loved helping people and planned to either further his career in the Army or become a police officer when his enlistment ended.
"He was that kind of kid, always a volunteer," he said. "He did it all his life as a firefighter and EMT. It's heartbreaking."
The Bordentown Regional School District was informed of Moore's death and released a statement that said the district and community were saddened.
"We are proud of his service to our nation and mourn the loss of this fine young man," Superintendent Constance Bauer said in the statement.
Army Pfc. Ben Moore of Bordentown City is believed to be the 16th person with Burlington County ties to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since those armed conflicts started.
Army Pfc. Ben Moore of Bordentown City is believed to be the 16th person with Burlington County ties to die in Iraq or Afghanistan since those armed conflicts started.
Burlington County War Victims
The other 15 are:
■ Army Staff Sgt. Terry Hemingway, 39, was killed April 10, 2003, when a car bomb exploded next to his Bradley fighting vehicle in an apparent suicide attack in Iraq. Hemingway graduated from Trenton Central High School in 1981. His family moved to Willingboro in 1983. He was married and had three children.
■ Army Spc. Simeon Hunte, a 23-year-old Newark resident married to a Lumberton native, was shot to death while on patrol in the city of Al Khadra, Iraq, on Oct. 21, 2003. His wife, Tara Hunte, was a graduate of Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly. She was living with relatives in Willingboro at the time of her husband's death.
■ Army Spc. Ryan Travis Baker, 24, died Nov. 15, 2003, one of 17 soldiers killed when two helicopters collided in northern Iraq. Baker was a Pemberton Township resident and 1997 graduate of Pemberton Township High School. He was survived by one child, who was living in Tennessee with his mother at the time.
■ Army Spc. Philip Ian Spakosky, 25, died May 14, 2004, from injuries suffered when he was shot by a sniper the day before in Karbala, Iraq. Spakosky was a 1997 graduate of Pemberton Township High School. He was married and had one biological child and two adopted children.
■ Army Spc. Bryan Freeman Jr., 31, died Nov. 8, 2004, after he was shot while conducting a vehicle search in Baghdad. Freeman was a Lumberton resident and 1991 graduate of Rancocas Valley.
■ Army Spc. David Mahlenbrock, 20, was killed Dec. 3, 2004, in Kirkuk, Iraq, by an improvised explosive device. Mahlenbrock was a Maple Shade resident and 2002 graduate of Maple Shade High School. He was married and had one child.
■ Marine Staff Sgt. Anthony Goodwin, 33, was killed May 8, 2005, by small-arms fire while fighting near the town of Al Qaim in Iraq. Goodwin lived in Mount Holly for about 18 months in the late 1980s and attended Rancocas Valley.
■ Thomas Jaichner, 33, of Bordentown City, was killed by sniper fire May 10, 2005, while working as a security contractor in Ramadi, Iraq. Jaichner was a graduate of Northern Burlington County Regional High School in Mansfield. He was married.
■ Army Capt. Charles D. Robinson, 29, was killed June 3, 2005, in Afghanistan. Robinson was from Haddon Heights, Camden County. His parents, Charles and Janet Robinson, were residents of Pemberton Township at the time of his death.
■ Army Staff Sgt. Robert Joseph Chiomento Jr., 34, was killed July 17, 2006, near Khwaya Ahmad, Afghanistan, when his patrol was attacked. Chiomento was a 1990 graduate of Pemberton Township. He was married and had two daughters.
■ Marine Lance Cpl. Curtis Alan Christensen Jr., 29, was killed Jan. 11, 2008, in a nonhostile incident in Anbar province, Iraq. Christensen was serving as a machine gunner with the 2nd Battalion, 8th Regiment. He attended Delran High School and was survived by his mother, Mary Knight of Woodland.
■ Army Reserve Maj. Dwayne Kelley, 48, was killed June 24, 2008, in an explosion in Sadr City, Iraq, during his third tour of duty. Kelley grew up in Willingboro and was a 1978 graduate of Kennedy High School. Kelley also was a decorated New Jersey State Police trooper and served in the police counterterrorism unit. He resided in South Orange.
■ Army Pvt. Janelle King, 23, died Aug. 14, 2008, in what the military described as a "noncombat-related incident." She was serving in Baghdad with the Army's 115th Combat Support Hospital out of Fort Polk, La. King was a 2003 graduate of Rancocas Valley and lived in Merced, Calif.
■ Army Reserve Maj. John P. Pryor, 42, of Moorestown, died Dec. 25, 2008, from wounds suffered when a mortar round exploded near his living quarters in the city of Mosul in northern Iraq. He was serving his second tour of duty as a battlefield surgeon with the 1st Medical Detachment, Forward Surgical Team, based out of Fort Totten, N.Y. In his civilian life, Pryor worked as a trauma surgeon at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He was married with three children.
■ Army Spc. Jamal M. Rhett, 24, of Palmyra, was killed Aug. 15, 2010, during an insurgent attack on his convoy in Baqubah, a town northeast of Baghdad. He was serving his second tour of duty in Iraq as a combat medic with the 25th Infantry Division based out of the Schofield Barracks in Hawaii. Rhett grew up in Palmyra and was a 2003 graduate of the Burlington County Institute of Technology in Westampton.
Source: Burlington County Time 01/14/11
