A Glimpse Into the Personality of Roy Moore

A Glimpse Into the Personality of Roy Moore

A Glimpse Into the Personality of Roy Moore
Courtesy of the LA Times

I have largely stayed away from the controversy surrounding Roy Moore’s predilections toward much younger women 30 years ago. I will admit I find it disturbing that he was prolific enough in his quest for teenage girls to have had a reputation as a creeper among the high school students in town, but I haven’t seen any current allegations of harassment or sexual assault, unlike the Frankenpig, who as of this writing, is refusing to go away despite allegations of inappropriate behavior by now two women, and John Conyers, who has apparently been protected by a twisted Congressional system, created to shield abusive Congressional slime. But hey, people of Alabama, you own him. Vote your conscience.

I do, however, think several reports about his time in the Army and subsequently law school give us a fascinating glimpse into the kind of person Roy Moore is. Insecure. Constantly seeking validation. A stickler for regulations – not because he has particular respect for said rules, but because they provide an opportunity to wield authority over others.

I will say up front I am not a psychologist. I have taken a few profiling courses in grad school, so I think I’m able to at least make a semi-educated assessment about the kind of person Roy Moore is. My mission is not to convince anyone to vote for or against him. There’s plenty of crawling slime on the Hill, and as far as nasty swine go, Moore will probably be at the bottom of that disreputable pile of rectums. That said, I’ve always thought it was important to examine the whole person, and I write this knowing there will likely be some flaming going on.

Bring it.

Picture it – my last deployment in 2007. I’m wearing ACUs sans top, because it’s hot as balls, and I’m leading a detail to unload a truck. Cover is off. I’m standing at the back of the truck when a snotty Captain walks by. I continue unloading, when he stops and stares at me.

Snotty Captain: Sergeant?

Me: Yes, Sir?

Snotty Captain: Were you not taught to salute an officer when he walks by?

Me (takes deep breath, ready to quote regs about not saluting while on detail, and about how Snotty Captain is an affirmation-seeking douchebag): …

My NCOIC (comes over, grabs my arm, and squeezes, whispering): Not worth it. Just salute the asshole.

I saluted the Snotty Captain with a clenched jaw, and immediately changed the salute to the one-finger kind when his back was turned.

Yes, military regulations and customs and courtesies exist for a reason. They promote discipline and esprit de corps. I get that. At the same time, exceptions, such as ones that say individuals engaged in work details, do not salute, exist for a reason. Mission first. No one needs to stop their work or drop a box on their foot, trying to salute a Snotty Captain, who desperately needs the affirmation. The individual in charge of a work detail, if not actively engaged, salutes and acknowledges salutes for the entire detail, but the caveat there is “not actively engaged,” because again – MISSION FIRST.

This applies even more to the battlefield, where no one will drop their rifle, jump up, and render a salute to an officer whose genitals are so inadequate, that he’s compensating by forcing everyone to acknowledge his officer-ness. Let’s forget the fact that it’s dangerous for the troop. It’s also dangerous for the officer himself, since the enemy has this penchant for shooting officers once they’re recognized.

Roy Moore, while serving in Vietnam, apparently didn’t get the memo.

Moore writes in his autobiography that he was “shocked” at the lack of discipline in the company and began issuing Article 15 charges — common but controversial nonjudicial punishments during the conflict. The soldiers under his command recalled Moore focusing on regulation haircuts and constant salutes, and called him “Captain America,” not meaning it as a compliment.

“His policies damn near got him killed in Vietnam,” Barrey Hall, who served under Moore, told The Associated Press in 2003. “He was a strutter.”

His former law school professor confirms other veterans have told him the same thing.

Guy Martin taught Moore in a seminar titled Discrimination in Employment. He, too, served in Vietnam. Veterans told him that Moore demanded that he be saluted on the ground in Vietnam, Martin said, which everyone knew was a foolish thing to do. “When you go to Vietnam as an officer, you don’t ask anybody to salute you, because the Viet Cong would shoot officers,” he explained. “You’ve heard this a million times in training.” If Moore indeed violated this rule, Martin went on, “There’s nothing more telling about a person’s capability and character and base intelligence. It’s crazy.”

Now, obviously the latter is rumor, but it’s corroborated by the former, and the source served under Moore in Vietnam, so I find that claim pretty credible.

So what kind of person violates said rule in order to assert his authority over others?

A person who has low self esteem, I would gather. The Snotty Captain whom I described earlier was just that kind of invertebrate. He considered all enlisted folks inferior to him, and loved wielding his authority over them. He thought we were all barely literate neanderthals, and treated us as such…

…until my Sergeant Major informed him exactly which university had issued my degree. All of a sudden, Snotty Captain became really docile and obsequious, and started trying to discuss world events, military theory, and economics with me. It got weird, so I spent the rest of the deployment avoiding him.

The kind of officers who demand salutes, even in the most inappropriate situations, are the kind of officers we least respected. They want recognition no matter what. They want their due, because they need affirmation about their superiority from people whom they consider inferior – even though said affirmation is superfluous. They desperately need that kind of validation. To them, the salute is a substitute for real accomplishment – recognition without the necessity of achievement (other than having checked the right boxes, or fellated the right personnel, to attain the rank of O-3). The salute is necessary, because that’s all they have.

The personality type fits. The same Roy Moore allegedly pursued numerous young girls as a 30-something attorney, probably hoping their youth and inexperience would translate to admiration for an older, accomplished man who showed interest in them. He sought veneration from juveniles, likely because he felt he couldn’t get it from others – pretty typical for a sub par law student, whom one of his professors called “Fruit Salad,” because he was so mixed up.

I may be completely off on this assessment, but the kind of military officer Roy Moore reportedly was seems to correspond to the kind of adult he became.

Just something to consider.

Written by

Marta Hernandez is an immigrant, writer, editor, science fiction fan (especially military sci-fi), and a lover of freedom, her children, her husband and her pets. She loves to shoot, and range time is sacred, as is her hiking obsession, especially if we’re talking the European Alps. She is an avid caffeine and TWD addict, and wants to own otters, sloths, wallabies, koalas, and wombats when she grows up.

9 Comments
  • GWB says:

    It’s also dangerous for the officer himself, since the enemy has this penchant for shooting officers once they’re recognized.

    I had a senior NCO who thought it was funny as hell to salute me when in the field (actually deployed to a not-quite-war zone). My return salute involved a glare and a single finger discreetly raised (and no hand to my helmet/cap). He was actually a good guy, but thought that was funny as all get out.

    As to Moore enforcing the rule “on the ground” in Vietnam, the said “Vietcong would shoot officers” was true, but an awful lot of the people complaining were in the rear and were just goldbricking. There were a LOT of discipline problems in Vietnam, and a lot of them centered on showing disrespect to officers and NCOs. (It comes from not fighting a war with a real commitment while at the same time dragooning citizens into the service.) Since I don’t know if said incidents were in the rear or out at a forward post, or on patrol, I can’t judge the complaints accurately.

    other than having checked the right boxes, or fellated the right personnel, to attain the rank of O-3

    Well, the only real boxes you need to check for O-3 are “still breathing and walking around” and “hasn’t done anything really horrid”. That is slightly different than to O-2, where the second one is “hasn’t done anything really, really, execrably horrid”. But, if you required fellatio to reach O-3, you had to have NOT checked one of those two boxes.

    • Marta Hernandez says:

      I’m literally giggling reading this!

      When I was deployed the last time, I had to have minor surgery on the tendon that runs along the middle of my right hand. So they wrapped my hand and gave me this brace to wear that made my middle finger stick out. I saluted every officer I saw with said middle finger. One of them (an O-5) asked if he could borrow the brace once I was done with it.

      Good times!

  • MikeyParks says:

    I believe you could take anyone, fasten in on his or her quirks and foibles and magnify them, and make him or her look ridiculous and pathetic. I’m sure that goes for you too, Marta. So you’ve piled on and belittled Roy Moore with your psychiatric assessment and, I suppose, elevated yourself at the same time. Trouble is, Moore is very likely to be vindicated in this matter. And, as in “The Ox-Bow Incident,” the lynch mob will slink away and hope everyone forgets.

  • MSGTs daughter says:

    GWB is correct about lack of discipline during Viet nam War. My father was stationed in Saigon; the sgt major was running a VN callgirl ring on base. They were also spies for the communists. When the sgt major went on leave, base commanding officer asked my father if he would help clean it up he did help the Colonel and lived in fear of assassination from the criminal American troops who threatened his life. My father loved this country and the Army. What he saw in VN was very disappointing..

  • GTB says:

    Holy Crap…older men finding younger women attractive and sexy. You call Ripley while I’ll call Hugh Hefner and Darwin!

  • CSS says:

    First, let me tell you how sorry I am that an officer required you to salute in an inappropriate situation some time in your past. That first happened to me when I was in training at AF OTS. Not the last. I got over it. Second, let me tell you that I normally agree with your analysis. Just not here notwithstanding the couple of courses in profiling you took in grad school. Do you realize that when Capt. Moore served in VN he was a stockade commander in Da Nang. Not the front lines where sniper fire was a problem. Indeed, most front line troops went there for R&R. And, I emphasis, he was a stockade commander. Thus, his troops were the guards. The ones that should be examples to the military prisoners under his supervision. I would expect him to ride his troops about proper military discipline. You? Do that go into your personality assessment? I would suggest you read the following article if you haven’t already. While some editorial opinions are inserted as news, if lays out Roy Moore’s very well. He has lived an extraordinary life. http://www.montgomeryadvertiser.com/story/news/politics/southunionstreet/2017/09/21/life-wartime-roy-moore-fights-battles-and-often-goes-looking-them/678577001/

  • John says:

    Dear Marta,
    You are completely off on this assessment. Roy Moore is better than you can see.

    Just something to consider, as you pass among these “Victory Girls” and may, in time, improve.

  • Morris says:

    First let me say I read another of your articles and really liked it, and I too am frustrated by Roy Moore’s revealed past, and its contrariness to what he stands for. Just a little info to help you in the future. Narcissists don’t actually have low self esteem, they have low frustration tolerance when somebody does something to threaten their high esteem. So they don’t walk around looking for people to give them strokes so they will feel better, they already do feel good about themselves. I am not saying Roy Moore’s a narcissist, only that if he were, he wouldn’t go seeking out validation with younger women. Narcissists do seek out younger women, but because they want someone who sees them as strong and wise, as they see themselves, and because the normal rules don’t apply to them they can pursue an attractive younger woman many men would avoid and get away with it. Keep learning, keep writing!

  • Marta Hernandez says:

    I don’t think he’s a narcissist, so that’s why I didn’t really describe him as such. I think “narcissism” is a very specific term, and I’m not sure it fits here.

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