Wilsonville veteran’s service remembered in new Xfinity commercial

Published 12:02 am Sunday, November 10, 2024

(WILSONVILLE) — In the early 1970s, Wilsonville resident Bill Moir was eating breakfast in a motel with his wife when he saw a news headline that the USS Saratoga, the aircraft carrier he was stationed on, was being sent to the war in Vietnam.

To Moir’s knowledge, as he enjoyed his wife’s company that day in the motel, the Saratoga had been set to deploy soon to the Mediterranean — not Vietnam — and he was enjoying a family vacation in Miami until then.

“So I called the duty office (to ask if the Saratoga would go to Vietnam), and they said, ‘Oh yeah, we leave in the morning,’” Moir said.

The Moir family raced back to Jacksonville so Moir’s wife, Ginny, could fly back to their home state, Oregon, and Moir could join the rest of the Saratoga crew. The ship deployed from its home port in Jacksonville to Vietnam in April 1972.

Once in Vietnam, he would be part of a team that helped save a downed pilot in enemy territory. More recently, he was in an Xfinity commercial featuring others from his squadron and has also been on talk shows.

Moir first joined the Naval Reserve as “the lowest man in the boiler room” after dropping out of his junior year at Benson Polytechnic High School in Portland. He later completed high school and graduated from Oregon State University with a mechanical engineering degree focusing on power plants and boilers, then went on to flight school in Pensacola, Florida.

While in Vietnam, Moir was an A-7 Corsair pilot for VA-105, nicknamed the Gunslingers, aboard the USS Saratoga, CVA-60. Moir flew 142 combat missions and also participated in a rescue effort to save pilot Jim Lloyd, who was shot down in the northern Vietnam region.

“Usually, if you went down, you were lost. Not necessarily dead, but you were captured or lost,” Moir said.

Moir didn’t directly save Lloyd but piloted one of the planes, helping to divert attention away from where Lloyd was located while another pilot coordinated a rescue effort. With others, Moir fired ammunition in an area far from Lloyd’s location as a distraction.

“We were trying to keep (the opposing forces) thinking that (Lloyd) was somewhere he wasn’t,” Moir said. In the operation, Moir was in the air for around four hours, returning to the Saratoga once as young crew members refueled the plane and reloaded ammunition while the aircraft was kept running — something he said is not typical and he has not done since. The whole operation took approximately six hours.

“It was incredible,” Moir said of the rescue operation. “And it probably served us well the whole rest of that cruise because for those of us flying, we had seen firsthand that they’re going to do everything they can to try and get you (if a rescue is needed).”

Moir served as a flight leader on Lloyd’s first mission after the rescue, resulting in Moir earning the nickname “Offender.” During the operation, the wing of Moir’s plane was shot, and he lost his fuel while in the air. With assistance, he was able to return to the Saratoga, where he was unable to land for nearly an hour.

As Moir’s plane circled the aircraft carrier, flying in bad condition, as he waited for permission to land, he was asked to change the frequency on his radio. This wasn’t easy to do while flying the plane in its condition. The USS Saratoga’s captain came on the radio to tell Moir he wanted to get the plane landed.

“I said, ‘God, Captain, you can’t want it any worse than I do, and it would have been a lot easier without the frequency change,’” Moir said, not knowing the message was being broadcast across the ship. The following day, he woke up with “the offender” written on his name tag.

Many years later, the name was joked about in an Xfinity commercial in which Moir took part.

The commercial “The Aviators” follows Lloyd, Moir and others in an advertisement for Wi-Fi. In the commercial, a person referring to Moir says, “That’s ‘Offender’ — don’t ask.” Since being in the commercial, Moir has been featured on talk shows like Good Morning America and in local news on KGW.

“They were all a huge surprise and a lot of fun,” Moir said, adding that it’s “a little embarrassing to get singled out” from the group.

Related to his service, Moir said he wants to emphasize that the pilots flying combat are “well prepared” for the job and that successes “almost always” had a team of young people behind them, like those who refueled his plane as it still ran.

“I’m proud of (my service),” Moir said, adding that serving in the military helped him be able to attend and graduate college, which he is thankful for.

Community:  Wilsonville

Service Branch: U.S. Navy

Rank: Lieutenant

Years of Service: 1962-1974

“It was incredible. And it probably served us well the whole rest of that cruise because for those of us flying, we had seen firsthand that they’re going to do everything they can to try and get you (if a rescue is needed).” 

— Bill Moir

Wilsonville Spokesman

503-684-0360

wilsonvillespokesman.com