Kyle Moreno has a photo of his meal in Germany before leaving for service in Iraq circa 2008. From left, PFC Kyle Moreno, Sgt. Joe England, PV2 Jeremy Batson, PV2 Ryan Murray and PV2 Skye Sweat. “That was the best McDonald's I ever ate in my life,” Moreno recalls.
Kyle Moreno, right, with buddy Jeremy Batson in 2008 during his second tour of Iraq.
Kyle Moreno and his daughter Kinzley.
Sgt. Kyle Moreno waiting to head to Afghanistan in 2011, at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii.
Kyle Moreno of De Soto served with the Army from 2007 to 2013.
“I was a young loudmouth, know-everything Hillsboro High School dropout,” he says of his teenage self. “I was told by everyone in town I ruined my entire life with that decision (to leave high school). But honestly, I was just bored in school.”
He passed the high school equivalency exam on the first try and worked briefly at a lead smelter before enlisting in the Army.
“I graduated basic training and infantry training, moved to Germany and deployed to Iraq – all before my senior class received their diplomas,” he says.
Moreno received a Purple Heart, three Army Commendation Medals, two Army Achievement Medals and a combat infantryman badge for combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Now medically retired, he drives a truck for JB Hunt out of the Anheuser-Busch brewery in St. Louis.
Sgt. Kyle Moreno of De Soto sent in this photo showing his platoon prior to taking off for Operation Hammer Down, and damage after a "not too smooth" landing. "They haven't determined if we took an rpg to the tail engine or if it was pilot error and we clipped the trees at 16,000 feet," he says. "Luckily we took no casualties."
