Harold Gregory Moore Jr. (February 13, 1922 – February 10, 2017) was a United States Army lieutenant general and author. As a lieutenant colonel, he commanded the 1st Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, at the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965, during the Vietnam War. The battle was detailed in the 1992 bestseller We Were Soldiers Once…and Young, co-authored by Moore and made into the film We Were Soldiers in 2002, which starred Mel Gibson as Moore. Moore was the "honorary colonel" of the regiment. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the U.S. Army's second-highest decoration for valor, and was the first soldier in his West Point graduating class of 1945 to be promoted to brigadier general, major general, and lieutenant general.

Moore was awarded the Order of Saint Maurice by the National Infantry Association as well as the Distinguished Graduate Award by the West Point Association of Graduates.

Moore was born on February 13, 1922, in Bardstown, Kentucky, the eldest of four children born to Harold Sr. and Mary (Crume) Moore. His father was an insurance agent whose territory covered western Kentucky. His mother was a homemaker. Because he was interested in obtaining an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York, and felt his chances were better if he lived in a larger city, he left Kentucky at the age of seventeen before finishing high school and got a job in Washington, D.C., working in the U.S. Senate book warehouse.^{[citation needed]}

Moore finished high school at night while working days and graduated from St. Joseph Preparatory School in Bardstown with the class of 1940. Moore attended George Washington University at night for two years, working at his warehouse job while waiting on an appointment to West Point. During his time at George Washington University, he was a member of the Kappa Sigma fraternity.^{[citation needed]}

After President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed legislation authorizing each senator and representative to make additional appointments to the military and naval academies, Moore was offered an appointment to the United States Naval Academy by Representative Ed Creal of the 4th Congressional District of Kentucky. Moore had no desire to go to the Naval Academy. Moore instead asked Creal whether he would be willing to trade his Naval Academy appointment to another congressman for an open Military Academy appointment for Moore, if Moore could find a willing partner for the exchange. Creal agreed, and Moore soon found Representative Eugene Cox of Georgia's 2nd Congressional District, who had an open appointment to West Point. Cox was impressed with Moore's tenacity and he left Cox's office with the West Point appointment.

Moore received his appointment to the U.S. Military Academy shortly after the United States entered into World War II. He reported to West Point for "Reception Day" on July 15, 1942, and the summer training referred to as "Beast Barracks" held before the formal academic school term took up in the fall. During his plebe summer at Pine Camp, he qualified as an expert on the M-1 Garand rifle and was the top scorer in his company. Although Moore did well in most of his classes, he was academically deficient in the required math subjects and he had to redouble his efforts to absorb the engineering, physics and chemistry, often studying two or three hours past lights out to memorize the material.

In the fall of 1942, his class received the news that because of the war, his class would graduate in three years rather than the usual four years. Moore made it through the plebe year, but just barely, as he put it, it was "an academic trip from hell." This observation caused Moore to lead a student's life at West Point devoted to studying, with few extracurricular activities. After a ten-day furlough, he reported to Camp Popolopen for summer military training, where his company trained with vehicles and fired many types of weapons. The summer ended with maneuvers held again at Pine Camp.

In his second year at the academy, he studied more complicated subjects like calculus, electrical engineering, thermodynamics and historic military campaigns. Wednesdays were spent watching the latest Staff Combat Film Report, which reported the most recent fighting from the Pacific and European war fronts. Summer military training after his second year consisted of touring U.S. Army basic training centers to study tactics and techniques.