Army & Navy: Career’s End

An impeccable Navy career had come to a tragic end. Rear Admiral Don Pardee Moon, commander of a task force in the invasion of Normandy, had taken his own life. The Navy, announcing his death last week, did not say how or where, offered no explanation except “battle fatigue.”

Handsome, 50-year-old Don Moon, fourth in his class (1916) at the Naval Academy, served on a battleship in World War I, made his way quietly up the naval ladder between wars. In 1942, as commander of a destroyer squadron, he helped support the landings on North Africa and was officially cited for “exemplary conduct” and “leadership under fire.” For Admiral Moon, as far many another officer, the invasion of Normandy was the high point of a career. He played his part with precision and assurance.

Happily married and the father of four children, Don Moon was well-liked, a successful Navy man. What happened in his war-weary mind no outsider could guess. Though war has always had its combat suicides, Army and Navy annals record no precedent among officers of comparable rank.