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Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Dos Equis on October 22, 2007, 11:33:05 AM
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Another American hero.
Medal of Honor awarded to 'antithesis of a warrior'
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- His mother describes Lt. Michael Murphy as "someone who always stuck up for the underdog." His father says he was "honest, kind, caring -- probably the antithesis of what you would call a warrior."
Murphy is the first U.S. service member to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Afghanistan.
1 of 2 Two years after he was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, Dan and Maureen Murphy and their son John will receive Lt. Murphy's Medal of Honor for heroism on the battlefield today from President Bush.
Murphy's honor is the first to be awarded from the war in Afghanistan. Two Medals of Honor have been awarded to soldiers serving in Iraq.
In June 2005, Murphy, 29, led his four-man Navy SEAL team into the 10,000-foot peaks of Afghanistan's Hindu Kush to search for a terrorist thought to be in the region. But they were soon spotted and started taking fire from more than 40 insurgents.
According to a Navy report on the incident, the insurgents held the advantage of terrain and launched a well organized, three-sided attack on the team, forcing them deeper into a ravine.
All four men were soon wounded, said the SEAL team's lone survivor, Petty Officer 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell. Watch Luttrell tell the story of what happened that day »
Medal of Honor
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the U.S. government.
It is bestowed on a member of the U.S. armed forces who distinguishes himself "conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States."
Source: Federal Code of Regulations, U.S. Department of Defense "We were hurtin' bad," Luttrell said. "We were out of ammo, and you know everybody, it was bad, it was real bad."
Murphy exposed himself to enemy fire while trying to keep his team together, Luttrell said.
"He was in a horrible position. He left himself open so he could move back and forth to each individual guy."
The mountainous terrain blocked communications. The team's communications operator was wounded as he tried to find an area to transmit from. According to the Navy report, Murphy moved into the open and "calmly provided his unit's location and the size of the enemy force while requesting immediate support for his team."
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Michael Murphy Medal of Honor page
The report said that at one point Murphy was hit in the back and dropped the handset but retrieved it and completed his call, even saying "thank you" at the end of his transmission.
Luttrell witnessed Murphy's heroism.
"I looked back up at Mikey and he took two rounds to the back and sat back up, hung up the phone. ... That was the last time I saw him."
The day turned out to be the U.S.'s deadliest in Afghanistan and the worst loss of life for the SEALs since World War II. Beyond the three SEALs on the ground, a Chinook helicopter carrying reinforcements was shot down while trying to reach the team, killing eight more SEALs and eight members of an Army special operations unit.
Luttrell was blasted over a ridge by a rocket-propelled grenade and knocked unconscious, according to the report. Despite suffering a bullet wound to one leg, shrapnel wounds in both legs and three cracked vertebrae, he managed to crawl away from the fight.
He was rescued by local villagers who refused demands by the Taliban to turn him over and later got word to a Marine outpost.
Murphy's parents in Patchogue, New York, were soon notified by the Navy of their son's death.
They said what they heard of the firefight exemplified their son.
"He was very protective of other people and he always stuck up for the underdog," Maureen Murphy said.
"Here is a man who had been shot in the stomach, and been fighting with this wound, gets shot in the back ... and then still has the presence of mind to say 'thank you,' which was Michael," Dan Murphy said. "Michael was the politest person you would ever want to meet."
The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration awarded by the United States government.
It is bestowed on a member of the United States armed forces who distinguishes himself "...conspicuously by gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while engaged in an action against an enemy of the United States."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/22/murphy.medal.of.honor/index.html
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glad this became news....it's about f**king time we start recognizing real heroes---and not ex football players...yep, a blatant shot at pat tillman.
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glad this became news....it's about f**king time we start recognizing real heroes---and not ex football players...yep, a blatant shot at pat tillman.
you wouldnt be the first American soldier to have taken a shot at Pat Tillman. :-\
RIP Pat Tillman.
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at least i can admit it...
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Pat's family survived a loss but to make his call to action somehow more heroic or noble pisses me off. His family has money and they are not left wanting but regular military personnel do these things everyday and leave their families behind with nothing. Pat Tillman showed honor but he was not a hero for being shot by friendly fire and that is what is being told to the American people. Simply signing up for the military does not make you a hero.
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Pat's family survived a loss but to make his call to action somehow more heroic or noble pisses me off. His family has money and they are not left wanting but regular military personnel do these things everyday and leave their families behind with nothing. Pat Tillman showed honor but he was not a hero for being shot by friendly fire and that is what is being told to the American people. Simply signing up for the military does not make you a hero.
i'm going to frame this statement...
i couldn't have said it better....yet, there are people out there that put this dude on a pedestal because he had a football contract.
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Simply signing up for the military means you're putting your ass on the line for American economic, political, and religious freedoms.
I'd say that's pretty heroic. Until a soldier throws it in a non-soldier's face and attempts to win praise/superiority for it. Just like any other noble profession, the moment the person attempts to weaponize his position - to belittle someone who doesn't have that calling - he becomes a piece of shit. until that happens, tho, I consider every soldier a hero. They risk bullets and miss family so that 300 mil of us can have a high standard of life and keep the riff raff in their own countries.
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whatever all that means...
no one questioned his patriotism there 240..or his guts..just the idea that he receive so many accoloades while others who showed greater heroism were ignored...for example: other medal of honor award winners---the stories written about them pale in comparison to what was written and is still being written about pat tillman...
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Simply signing up for the military means you're putting your ass on the line for American economic, political, and religious freedoms.
I'd say that's pretty heroic. Until a soldier throws it in a non-soldier's face and attempts to win praise/superiority for it. Just like any other noble profession, the moment the person attempts to weaponize his position - to belittle someone who doesn't have that calling - he becomes a piece of shit. until that happens, tho, I consider every soldier a hero. They risk bullets and miss family so that 300 mil of us can have a high standard of life and keep the riff raff in their own countries.
Knowing about certain areas of military life, there is a big distinction between heroic and non heroic individuals. Simply putting a uniform on does not make one a hero. You cannot compare Mike Murphy to a cook or Yeoman or a lawyer. That may seem overly critical but I would say that more so than anyone on this board that I have been inundated with Pat Tillman rhetoric and while noble for signing up with a combat unit, his accidental death was heralded as a heroic action. Not so. Comparing a JAG lawyer to a SEAL or Supply Major to a Force Recon Marine and calling them all heroes is wrong and does injustice to those who get dirty.
Pat's football contract, as rocky stated, made this guy a hero. Rangers serve everyday but are never discussed unless it concerns this guy or an op gone wrong. Outside of the SEAL community, Mike Murphy will be forgotten but Tillman will always be remembered. That is wrong.