“My wife was pregnant, and we liked Muskogee,” he said. “And I wanted to spend more time with my family.”

In addition to the Marines, he spent six more years in the National Guard.

The guys in his unit encouraged him to “use Uncle Sam's money and go to college,” and he did.

Moore graduated from Connors State College with a business degree, but not until after he took remedial reading courses. That was when he found out that he was dyslexic.

He started out with third-grade reading comprehension at Connors and finished with the ability of a college freshman.

Today Moore is a published author of poems and short stories.

Poems, novels and short stories

Years ago, OG&E sent Moore to a Dale Carnegie course on communication.

During one of the speeches he was required to give, he said, “The ghosts that walk within my mind” when talking about his time in Vietnam.

One of the instructors was so taken with the phrase that Moore wrote a poem for him.

“That's the first poem I ever wrote,” he said. “The Phoenix published it, my first publication.”

His second was in England.

“Thirteen Magazine” published his short story, “Home,” in a special 2005 Halloween edition.

Although he can be found most mornings forcing the waitresses at Paul's Diner to read his latest poem, Moore has moved on to writing novels as well.