May 16, 2008
Navy to name ship after fallen Patchogue serviceman
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A U.S. Navy destroyer will be named after Lt. Michael P. Murphy, the Patchogue native who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 while seeking help for his platoon members who had come under intense fire from the Taliban, officials said Wednesday.
At a ceremony on the eastern shore of Lake Ronkonkoma -- in a Brookhaven Town beach previously named after Murphy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor last September -- Navy Secretary Donald Winter said the keel of the destroyer would be laid in June 2009 at a shipyard in Maine. He said the ship would be commissioned in 2011.
Winter said Navy warships have traditionally been named after major historical figures, such as American presidents. He said the naming of the destroyer after Murphy was "an opportunity to recognize this new generation of heroes."
Murphy had been a lifeguard on the same Ronkonkoma beach when he was growing up in Patchogue.
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About this report
This story is based on scores of interviews in the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with official records, military and media reports. To flesh out the story of the four U.S. Navy SEALs who were sent to Afghanistan to track a reputed terror leader, reporter Martin C. Evans spoke with U.S. Navy officials, family members and military colleagues of the four men. He also spoke with Navy officials about SEAL training, and with other military officials about conditions in eastern Afghanistan where the four SEALs were sent on their mission. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, reporter James Rupert spoke with experts on the fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. military officials, and the goat herder who rescued the lone survivor of a gun battle that took the lives of three of the SEALs
The announcement pleased the slain sailor's family. "I am at a loss; what do you say?" said Murphy's father, Daniel Murphy, of Wading River. " 'Thank you' seems so trivial in light of such an honor to our son."
Murphy and a four-man Navy SEAL team were hiding on a mountainside in eastern Afghanistan trailing a Taliban leader when they were surrounded by dozens of fighters. In receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award, Murphy was cited for exposing himself to enemy fire while trying to radio for help. Murphy and two others were killed; a fourth SEAL was saved when an Afghan herder came upon him and took him to his village for safekeeping.
Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command under which Murphy served, said the ship's naming represents the pinnacle of naval honors.
"His was a courageous act," Kernan said. "If you have a ship named after you, you've done something extraordinary."
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