Arthur S. Moura

Arthur S. Moura
Personal details
Born	1923 Taunton, Massachusetts
Died	29 October 2008
Nativity	United States
Religion	Catholic
Awards	Legion of Merit; Army Commendation Medal
Military service
Allegiance	United States
Branch	United States Army
Arm / service	Infantry
ASN	01333512
Rank	Brigadier General
Rank at Ritchie	Second Lieutenant
Camp Ritchie	Class 29 (13 April – 12 June 1945)
Section	6A

Awards and honors

Legion of Merit	Army Commendation Medal

Research notes on this page are compiled from the source file and later edits. They may be unverified, incomplete, or incorrect, and should not be treated as established fact. Please correct the article or add sources on the talk page. For class-roster terms, see About the data.

Sources & confidence: Treat Research notes as leads, not settled fact. Prefer NARA, the class roster, newspapers, Find a Grave, or published histories for contested claims. Mark unsourced claims with {{Needs source}}, or explain disagreements on talk. Baseline import notes: About the data.

Arthur S. Moura (1923 – 29 October 2008) was a Taunton-born Portuguese-American Ritchie Boy who became a brigadier general specializing in U.S.–Latin American relations and served as Defense Attaché in Brazil.

Biography

Arthur S. Moura was born in Taunton, Massachusetts, in 1923 to Portuguese immigrant parents and grew up fluent in Portuguese and Spanish. Drafted in 1943, he completed basic training, married his high-school sweetheart Jo, attended Infantry Officer Candidate School, and trained at Camp Ritchie in Class 29.

Moura built a long Army career focused on U.S.–Latin American relations. He earned a B.S. from the University of Maryland and an M.A. in Latin American civilization from George Washington University. He served three Pentagon tours (including Joint Chiefs of Staff duty), one tour in the Panama Canal Zone, and two tours in Brazil—in Rio de Janeiro and Brasília—as Defense Attaché. He also carried out nine special White House assignments under Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon. Mentored in part by Vernon A. Walters, he later lectured at the National War College, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces, and the Foreign Service Institute. Decorations recorded in public memorials include the Distinguished Service Medal, Legion of Merit, and Army Commendation Medal with two oak leaf clusters, together with Brazilian orders. He was inducted into the Officer Candidate School Hall of Fame and the Defense Intelligence Hall of Fame as a Distinguished Military Attaché.

After retiring in 1975 following 33 years of continuous active duty, he remained in Brazil as executive assistant to the president of Mendes Junior Construction Group. He died on 29 October 2008 at age 85 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Research notes

• Distinguished Service Medal is attested in public memorial text but no matching local ribbon file was available; kept in Biography prose only.

Technical record

Field	Imported value
Approx Age at Death	85
Class_ASN	1333512
Class_Name	MOURA, Arthur J.
match_method	asn_exact_name_exact
row_source	both

Timeline

• 1923 — Born in Taunton, Massachusetts.
• 1943 — Drafted; later Infantry OCS and Camp Ritchie Class 29.
• Postwar career — Latin American attaché/intelligence assignments; White House special duties; Defense Attaché in Brazil.
• 1975 — Retired after 33 years of continuous active duty; remained in Brazil with Mendes Junior Construction Group.
• 29 October 2008 — Died (age 85); buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Sources

• American Intelligence Journal 36, no. 1 (2019): “Attaché in Brazil: Arthur Moura’s Long March, 1945–1975 — A Memoir,” by BG (USA, Ret.) Arthur S. Moura (RB Archive PDF copy)
• UMass Dartmouth Archives blog — Program Honoring WWII Portuguese-American Veterans (30 May 2014)
• Arlington National Cemetery website — Arthur S. Moura memorial biography
• Camp Ritchie Museum, Inc. (The Ritchie History Museum), Classes 1–31 roster data
• Dan Gross research spreadsheets, including original Excel timeline/roster work, combined with other research and records
• NARA World War II Army enlistment records (where a NARA ASN is present)
• 1940 U.S. Census (where a census match is present)
• Ritchie Boys of WWII Facebook page, post dated 2023-01-17 (1 post)