Columbus State University concluded Veterans Day events on Nov. 11 by officially naming the Lt. Gen. Harold & Julia Moore Institute for the Study of the American Military Experience.
The institute stands as one of only a handful nationwide dedicated to documenting, preserving, and providing access to resources on U.S. military history. The University System of Georgia Board of Regents approved the naming in October to honor the revered military couple.
“Hal and Julie represent the full scope of the American military experience: the steadfast leadership of those who serve in uniform on the battlefield, and the resilience required to support military families back at home. And that is the heart of this institute,” said Pat Donahoe, the university’s chief operating officer.
Donahoe is a retired U.S. Army major general and former commanding general of the Army’s Maneuver Center of Excellence and Fort Benning. Columbus State aims to expand existing military history programs through the institute to foster informed public discourse and preserve critical records.
Dr. David Kieran stepped in as the institute’s inaugural director after serving as the university’s Col. Richard R. Hallock Distinguished University Chair of Military History since 2022. He aims to set the institution apart by focusing broadly on the entire cultural footprint of service.
“The term ‘American military experience’ is intentional,” Kieran told the audience at the naming celebration. “We know that the American military experience isn’t just what happens to soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines when they are deployed and they are downrange.”
“The American military experience is what happens to military families … it’s what happens in military communities like the one we live in. … [it] touches the pastors of our churches, the teachers in our schools,” Kieran said.
Kieran served as the 2024-25 Harold Keith Johnson Chair at the U.S. Army War College and has authored or edited six books on military history. He explained that the Moore family perfectly captures the institute’s core mission by embodying both battlefield heroism and domestic resilience.
Greg Moore, the eldest of the Moores’ five children, spoke at the celebration alongside one of his father’s uniforms on loan from the National Infantry Museum. He emphasized that the military functions as a distinct culture within American democracy.
“The American military is more than an institution of national defense; it is a distinctive culture within our democracy. It takes citizens from every walk of life and asks them to accept extraordinary obligations, including the willingness to give their lives for one another,” Moore said.
Moore said that roughly 6% of American adults are military veterans while fewer than 1% are on active duty, according to Pew Research Center estimates. He challenged civilians to bridge that cultural gap.
“How can Americans who have never served or lived a military life better understand the men and women who stand at risk on their behalf?” Moore asked.
The younger Moore also highlighted how his father’s 32 assignments and the family’s 26 Army-related moves forged resilience and adaptability in him and his siblings. His remarks anchored a panel discussion on military family life featuring Jeannie Puckett, wife of the late Medal of Honor recipient Col. Ralph Puckett.
“You put on a good front in front of your children,” Puckett recalled of her experience as an Army wife during extended deployments. “Nobody really understands that until you walk in those shoes. And so, the minute he left, there was this feeling of real responsibility—of knowing that I would have to carry on if he didn’t come back.”
The Moore Institute grew from programming funded by the Col. Richard R. Hallock Endowment for Military History, established in 2010. Myriam Johnson Hallock later established the Myriam & Richard Hallock Distinguished Lecture in Foreign Policy and National Security Endowment in early 2026.
Columbus State houses nationally significant collections ranging from the American Revolution to the present. Recent additions include papers from Reagan-era Secretary of the Army John O. Marsh, Army social worker James Martin, and Pierre Sprey.
U.S. Senators Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock secured $175,000 in bipartisan federal funding in early 2026 for military history preservation at the university. Additional support arrived through endowments established by the Donahoe and Foster families, alongside a formal partnership with the Library of Congress’ Veterans History Project.
“Through the oral history collection that we’re building—through the stories we are gathering not just from the generals, not just from the secretaries of the Army, but from the wives, the children, the members of our community—we will tell the full story of the American military experience,” Kieran said.
