| Veterans
News Flash 
Navy
Seal, Medal of Honor Recipient, to be Inducted
Into the Hall of Heroes
 WASHINGTON
(AP) — The first Medal of Honor
awarded for combat in Afghanistan will be presented
Monday, October 22, to the family of a Navy SEAL
from Long Island, N.Y, who gave his life to make
a radio call for help for his team.
President Bush is to present the nation's highest
military honor for valor to the family of Lt.
Michael Murphy (pictured
right) of Patchogue, N.Y.
"There's a lot of awards in the military, but
when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever
they went through is pretty horrible. You don't
congratulate anyone when you see it," said Marcus
Luttrell, the lone member of Murphy's team to survive
the firefight with the Taliban.
Murphy, Luttrell and two other SEALs were searching
for a terrorist in the Afghan mountains on June
28, 2005, when their mission was compromised after
they were spotted by locals, who presumably alerted
the Taliban to their presence.
An intense gun battle ensued, with more than 50
anti-coalition fighters swarming around the outnumbered
SEALs.
Although wounded, Murphy is credited with risking
his own life by moving into the open for a better
position to transmit a call for help.
Still under fire, Murphy provided his unit's location
and the size of the enemy force. At one point he
was shot in the back, causing him to drop the transmitter.
Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and
continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.
He then returned to his cover position with his
men and continued the battle. A U.S. helicopter
sent to rescue the men was hit by a rocket-propelled
grenade, killing all 16 aboard.
By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and
two of his comrades were also dead. An estimated
35 Taliban were also killed. Luttrell was blown
over a ridge and knocked unconscious. He escaped,
and was protected by local villagers for several
days before he was rescued.
"We look at these guys and say, 'What heroes,'" said
Murphy's father, Dan Murphy. "These guys look at
themselves and say, 'I'm just doing my job.' That's
an understatement, but that's the way they view
it, and that was Michael's whole life."
Murphy, who died before his 30th birthday, is
the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the
first since the Vietnam War. Two Medals of Honor
have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war:
to Marine Cpl. Jason Dunham, who was killed in
2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet,
and to Army Sgt. 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was
killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with
a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad
airport.
Murphy's heroics have been widely recognized on
Long Island, where he graduated in 1994 from Patchogue-Medford
High School.
To his fellow SEALs,
he was known as "Murph," but
as a child, his parents nicknamed him "The Protector," because
of his strong moral compass. After the 2001 terror
attacks, that compass eventually led him to Afghanistan,
where he wore a patch of the New York City Fire
Department on his uniform.
"He took his deployment personally. He was going
after, and his team was going after, the men who
planned, plotted against and attacked not only
the United States, but the city he loved, New York," said
his father. "He knew what he was fighting for."
More information about Murphy’s
life and career can be found at http://www.navy.mil/moh/mpmurphy/pg.html
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