General Hal Moore

The uncharted journey of Ronald D. Moore

(CNN) -- Getting the details out of his head and on to paper was Executive Producer Ronald D. Moore's most important priority of the day.

It was the first Tuesday in March, and he had been up late the night before typing out the details of life in the "17th Precinct," an innovative new world in which police detectives relied on magic, not forensics, to catch criminals.

Writing the "show bible" was Moore's way of conveying his vision to his cast and crew. Until a couple of months ago, these ideas existed only in his head. This one document would spell out every detail of life, from the way detectives picked apart a crime scene to the way they could make evidence float off the ground for closer forensic examination.

The concept had already taken shape at Sony, where executives had teamed with Moore's Tall Ship Productions for content. It was then successfully pitched to NBC, where executives agreed to fund the pilot.

After that, Moore's professional life became a frenzied ballet of scripting, casting, coordinating artwork and setting production schedules. He was now just a week away from a table read with the cast, and he already had a crew scouting shoot locations in and around Vancouver.

Geeky interests linger

The excitement was palpable. In a way, it reminded him of the feeling he had as a 5-year-old boy sitting in his Chowchilla, California, living room decades earlier. When Neil Armstrong took his first uncharted steps on the moon, Moore watched with a sense of awe.

For him, a whole new world was unfolding. "I wrote letters to NASA in first and second grade, and then I found 'Lost in Space,' " Moore recalls. "In third grade, I discovered 'Star Trek,' and that was the defining show of my life. Channel 26, four o'clock every afternoon."

As Moore got older, he explored the jock route, playing football and running track in high school. He eventually became a self-described "baseball fanatic," but that sense of discovery and exploration stayed with him and led to a writing job on "Star Trek: The Next Generation."

A stint with "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine" followed and helped launch his budding career as well as helping him earn status with a generation of nerds, even if he never really considered himself a part of that culture.

"I've never really thought of myself as a nerd, which is not to say others haven't thought it of me. I have referred to myself as a geek from time to time, and my wife sometimes calls me the 'King of the Geeks,' although considering the hierarchical status of Steve Jobs, George Lucas, et al., a mere prince might be more accurate.

My Unhealthy Idolization with LTG Harold “Hal” Moore « AizuScuttlebutt

Despite my lack of respect for overly-conservative minded, gray-haired, old geezers who make the BS policy decisions that run our lives, I am a huge fan of Lieutenant General Harold G. Moore , U.S. Army (ret.).  Why?  Because the man is made out of WIN!  For those of you who don’t know who Harold “Hal” Moore is, I suggest you look him up immediately.

Hal Moore is a Korean War and Vietnam War veteran, most famous for being the commanding officer of the 1/7 Air Cavalry during the Battle of Ia Drang in 1965.  More importantly, he is one of the best military leaders I have ever read about and is simply an outstanding leader all around.  In short, he’s basically the yardstick which I measure most leaders against.

So what makes this guy so great as a leader?

Well, to be honest, he’s not really what Hollywood pictures a military leader to be.  He’s not a fire-breathing Patton type, nor is he overly flamboyant or egotistical.  He does possess charisma, but it is subtle and takes a back seat to his other qualities.  His speaking style is simple, yet tasteful and honest.  Most importantly, he’s not a self-serving bureaucratic idiot.  He prefers to be on the ground with his people and always has their best interests in mind.  He wants his people to be well-trained and self-sufficient so he doesn’t have to micromanage them.

He’s also written 2 books, both which relate to the Battle of Ia Drang.  To be fair, he’s not exactly an expert in leadership theory and he doesn’t have 4 Ph.D.’s to back his leadership ability up.  Moreover, his books don’t go heavily into depth on his leadership philosophy with a truckload of references to all the academic tomes he’s read on leadership.  However, I will say that his experiences in battlefield leadership and its application are what more than qualifies him as an expert in applied leadership.  While very much a well-read and highly educated man (he attended West Point and later Harvard, although he graduated in the bottom 1/3 of his class at West Point), Moore seems to place more emphasis on how things get done in the field as oppose to sitting around a posh conference table, drinking coffee and waxing philosophical with the boys in the suits.

I could go all into this man’s various credentials, but it all pales in comparison to his track record on the ground.

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