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Long Island Navy SEAL to get Medal of Honor Monday

BY MARTIN C. EVANS | martin.evans@newsday.com

2:29 PM EDT, October 23, 2007

For an act of heroism on a lonely Afghanistan mountainside, far from the White House's ceremonial rooms, President George W. Bush Monday will posthumously bestow the nation's highest military honor to the son of a Long Island family.

The citation is for Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy, of Patchogue, killed June 28, 2005 in a fierce firefight with dozens of Taliban insurgents, after risking his life to try to bring help for his doomed comrades.

Murphy's parents, Daniel Murphy, a law clerk in State Supreme Court in Riverhead, and Maureen Murphy, of Patchogue, will accept the medal along with Murphy's brother, John, during a 2:30 p.m. White House visit.

Moments before the 2:30 ceremony was to begin, Michael's parents - Daniel and Maureen Murphy - greeted guests in an ornate room near the East Room in the White House. The only surviving SEAL from the fire fight that claimed Michael Murphy's life, Marcus Luttrell, stood with the Murphy parents shaking hands. Then everyone filed into the ornate East Room, under a huge chandelier for the ceremony.

More than three dozen of Murphy's relatives and scores of friends -- including a busload of NYC firefighters -- accompanied Murphy's parents to Washington over the weekend to await the ceremony.

"I think we're feeling anticipation and excitement that Michael's actions in Afghanistan are on the national stage," Daniel Murphy, who was awarded the Purple Heart during the Vietnam War, said Sunday.

He said the family planned to visit Arlington National Cemetery later in the day, where several men who were killed trying to rescue the Navy commandos are buried.

"Michael would have wanted us to do that," Daniel Murphy said. "He was very much a team player and believed in the members of his team."

The president is expected to spend a few private moments with the family before presenting them with the Navy's version of the Medal of Honor, a five-pointed star suspended from an anchor-affixed blue ribbon adorned with 13 stars.

Murphy had been one of four Navy SEAL commandos inserted onto a mountainside to secretly track the movements of a Taliban leader, when their group was discovered, beset upon, and chased into a steep ravine by more than 50 heavily armed insurgents.

Determined to take the place of an injured communications corpsman who had his thumb shot off, Murphy crawled into the open from the protection of a rocky hiding place to radio for help. Shot again as he was making contact with a rescue force at a distant military base, Murphy retrieved the transmitter he dropped and calmly provided the group's location and the size of the attacking force, then rejoined the fight.

He and two other SEALs perished: Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Danny Dietz, of Littleton, Colo., and Sonar Technician 2nd Class Matthew Axelson, of Cupertino, Calif. A third SEAL, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, escaped with injuries and credits Murphy with saving his life. He plans to attend Monday's ceremony. "For him, it was either 'I go out there and die, or everyone is going to die,' and he did it," Luttrell told Newsday Sunday. "No one will ever know how horrible it was. He went through hell."

Eight Navy SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers who rushed to the rescue died when their helicopter was shot down by a rocket propelled grenade.

The incident resulted in the largest loss of life for Naval Special Warfare since the end of World War II, and the deadliest day for U.S. military forces in Afghanistan since operations began there nearly six years ago.

Tomorrow, the Pentagon will inscribe Murphy's name into its Hall of Heroes -- a roster of all Medal of Honor recipients -- during an 11 a.m. ceremony there. Later, Adm. Gary Roughhead, chief of Naval Operations, will present Murphy's parents with the star-adorned Medal of Honor flag during a public 6 p.m. ceremony at the Navy Memorial in Washington.