Army wifeJulia Compton Moore

The wife of an Army colonel during the Vietnam era, Moore was appalled by the way the military notified families of soldiers’ deaths: by sending a telegram to the family via taxi. She demanded of the base commander a list of families who would get telegrams, and followed the taxi around so no one would be alone when they got a notice. Her successful campaign to change the notification method was chronicled in a 2002 movie We Were Soldiers, based on a book she wrote with her husband. She died April 18 from cancer. She was 75.