Navy SEAL To Receive Medal Of Honor
Cross-posted from Milblog Ring HQ:
As Blackfive mentioned at his place, Navy SEAL LT Michael Murphy, who fell in battle in Afghanistan in June 2005, will be inducted into the Pentagon's Hall of Heroes later this month, after his father accepts the Medal of Honor in his behalf. From Navy NewsStand:
Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. However local Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded.As near as I can tell, LT Murphy will be the first Sailor so honored since the Vietnam War.
The SEALs fought the enemy fearlessly despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson.
The selfless heroism displayed by LT Murphy and his men is a reminder of why all of us know that the military is such a unique calling.
Update 0903 12 Oct: Subvet has more on LT Murphy.
posted by Bubblehead at 8:31 AM
7 Comments:
You would have thought they could have found a more recent picture than what was obviously his BUDS graduation photo (National Defense, Pistol and Rifle Ribbons) As a SEAL Lieutenant, I would imagine he had quite a few medals/ribbons! I've seen reports on other CMH awardees (I don't think anyone "wins" this medal) during the Iraqi war and all have been posthumously awarded. I have to think that there is at least one servicemember out there who has done deeds worhty of the CMH and lived to tell about it. I hope the CMH doesn't turn into a posthumous only award.
10/12/2007 9:50 AM
Well, you know the federal government, they are always behind on things...
10/12/2007 5:31 PM
Yes a Navy Corpsman CMH in 2002.
10/12/2007 5:50 PM
j20 bowman, just by the nature of the award there won't be any overwhelming number who live to talk about it. We had a HMCM on my first usetafish who had got his in Korea, according to our goat locker sources when the man took off his T-shirt his back looked like someone had taken a cleaver to it.
Just surviving to talk about it ought to be worthy of an award in itself!
Bubblehead, thanks for the shoutout for my site.
10/12/2007 9:38 PM
Hey, we should put shortcuts to each of our sites on our blogs!
10/13/2007 11:30 AM
I had the honor to go through SERE training witn several UDT/SEAL members at Warner Springs CA before we all went to VN.
After 3 days of little food and water our squad was getting ready for the next stage which was the POW camp. While the rest of us were barely getting by and dreading the waterboarding in our future, the 3 UDT/SEALs planned a covert mission to plant weapons in the POW camp.
These guys are just different.
It's almost impossible for us mere mortals to have a clue as to what makes them tick.
I also remember that after grooming pebbles with our fingertips in the camp we had to move fire wood from one hooch to another endlessly. Me and another guy had to try and lift up a pretty big hunk of tree and the two of us could barely move it. This guy came over to us, he was about 6'6" and 250 with a pretty full beard by that time. He was wearing a cutoff sweat shirt and he was nothing but a pile of muscles. I remember he asked if he could help us. And we just nodded yes as we'd been up for 48 hrs at this point. He reached down and picked this thing up and put it on his shoulder like it was nothing.
Just Damn.
10/14/2007 6:30 PM
bkt(ss) is not correct. LT Murphy will be the third MOH awarded in the war on terror. LT Murphy is also the first Navy person since Vietnam. There is one corpsman, the only non-SEAL, that was awarded the Navy Cross.
10/19/2007 8:22 PM
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