Posted by: McQ on Saturday, October 13, 2007
The third Medal of Honor will be presented October 22nd to the parents of Lt. Michael Patrick Murphy, a SEAL killed in Afghanistan during Operation Red Wing. This will be the first MOH for the war in Afghanistan. On June 28, 2005, deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan, a very committed four-man Navy SEAL team was conducting a reconnaissance mission at the unforgiving altitude of approximately 10,000 feet. The SEALs, Lt. Michael Murphy, Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz, Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson and Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class (SEAL) Marcus Luttrell had a vital task. The four SEALs were scouting Ahmad Shah – a terrorist in his mid-30s who grew up in the adjacent mountains just to the south. Under the assumed name Muhammad Ismail, Shah led a guerrilla group known to locals as the "Mountain Tigers" that had aligned with the Taliban and other militant groups close to the Pakistani border. The SEAL mission was compromised when the team was spotted by local nationals, who presumably reported its presence and location to the Taliban. A fierce firefight erupted between the four SEALs and a much larger enemy force of more than 50 anti-coalition militia. The enemy had the SEALs outnumbered. They also had terrain advantage by holding the higher ground. They launched a well-organized, three-sided attack on the SEALs. The firefight continued relentlessly as the overwhelming militia forced the team deeper into a ravine. Trying to reach safety, the four men, now each wounded, began bounding down the mountain's steep sides, making leaps of 20 to 30 feet. Approximately 45 minutes into the fight, pinned down by overwhelming forces, Dietz, the communications petty officer, sought open air to place a distress call back to the base. But before he could, he was shot in the hand, the blast shattering his thumb. Despite the intensity of the firefight and suffering grave gunshot wounds himself, Murphy is credited with risking his own life to save the lives of his teammates. Murphy, known as “Mikey” to his friends and family, although shot and wounded himself, managed to move onto a ridgeline and radio headquarters at the nearby air base for them to send in reinforcements. Marcus Luttrell, the only survivor of the ordeal, describes what he did in his book “Lone Survivor”. “Mikey was ignoring his wound and fighting like a SEAL officer should, uncompromising, steady, hard-eyed, and professional,” Luttrell wrote. Then, says Luttrell, after Dietz was wounded, Murphy took his mobile phone, “walked to open ground. He walked until he was more or less in the center, gunfire all around him, and he sat on a small rock and began punching in the numbers to HQ.” He was attempting to call the SOF Quick Reaction Force at Bagram Air Base and request assistance. “I could hear him talking,” Luttrell wrote. “My men are taking heavy fire ... we’re getting picked apart. My guys are dying out here ... we need help.’ “And right then Mikey took a bullet straight in the back. I saw the blood spurt from his chest. He slumped forward, dropping his phone and his rifle. But then he braced himself, grabbed them both, sat upright again, and once more put the phone to his ear. “ ‘Roger that, sir. Thank you,’ ” Luttrell heard Murphy say before he reengaged the enemy by fire. “Only I knew what Mikey had done. He’d understood we had only one realistic chance, and that was to call in help,” Luttrell wrote. “Knowing the risk, understanding the danger, in the full knowledge the phone call could cost him his life, Lieutenant Michael Patrick Murphy, son of Maureen, fiancé of the beautiful Heather, walked out into the firestorm. “His objective was clear: to make one last valiant attempt to save his teammates,” he wrote. Not long after the call, Murphy was shot again, calling for Luttrell to help him, but Luttrell, also hit and wounded, couldn’t reach him. “There was nothing I could do except die with him,” he wrote. An MH-47 Chinook helicopter, with eight additional SEALs and eight Army Night Stalkers from the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, were sent in as part of an extraction mission to pull out the four embattled SEALs. As I’m sure your recall, the 160th SOAR was involved in the famous “Blackhawk down” incident in Somalia. The MH-47 was escorted by heavily-armed, Army attack helicopters. Entering a hot combat zone, attack helicopters are used initially to neutralize the enemy and make it safer for the lightly-armored, personnel-transport helicopter to insert. But the heavy weight of the attack helicopters slowed the formation’s advance prompting the MH-47 to outrun their armed escort. They knew the tremendous risk going into an active enemy area in daylight, without their attack support, and without the cover of night. Risk would, of course, be minimized if they put the helicopter down in a safe zone. But knowing that their warrior brothers were shot, surrounded and severely wounded, the rescue team opted to directly enter the oncoming battle in hopes of landing on brutally hazardous terrain. As the Chinook raced to the battle, a rocket-propelled grenade struck the helicopter, killing all 16 men aboard. Even though the MH-47 went down, the crew of an escort attack helicopters sited the SEALs on the ground as putting up "an unbelievable firefight." On the ground, with the rescue ship down and nearly out of ammunition, the four SEALs, Murphy, Luttrell, Dietz and Axelson, continued the fight. By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy, Axelson and Dietz had been killed. An estimated 35 Taliban were also dead. Marcus Luttrell, was blasted over a ridge by a rocket propelled grenade and was knocked unconscious. Regaining consciousness some time later, Luttrell managed to escape – badly injured – and slowly crawl away down the side of a cliff. He was eventually rescued on July 2 after a courageous and harrowing time avoiding Taliban who were looking for him. By his undaunted courage, intrepid fighting spirit and inspirational devotion to his men in the face of certain death, Lt. Murphy was able to relay the position of his unit, an act that ultimately led to the rescue of Luttrell and the recovery of the remains of the three who were killed in the battle. This was the worst single-day U.S. Forces death toll since Operation Enduring Freedom began nearly six years ago. It was the single largest loss of life for Naval Special Warfare since World War II. But the courage and determination of LT. Murphy to do what was necessary to try and save his men, even at the cost of his own life, demonstrated a level of valor that even awed the special operators. His leadership, valor and sacrifice have now been properly honored. In a White House ceremony on October 22nd, his parents will accept the award of the Medal of Honor on behalf of their son from the President of the United States. The family is deeply honored by the award. Said his father, Daniel Murphy, "I think it is a public recognition of what we knew about Michael, of his intensity, his focus, his devout loyalty to home and family, his country and especially to his SEAL teammates and the SEAL community."
1LT Brian Chontosh: Navy Cross PFC Daniel McClenney: Silver Star PVT Dwayne Turner: Silver Star MSG Robert Collins & SFC Danny Hall: Silver Star SSG William Thomas Payne: Silver Star CPT Christoper J. Bronzi: Silver Star SSG Charles Good: Silver Star SR AMN Jason D. Cunningham: Air Force Cross PFC Jeremy Church: Silver Star SGT Leigh Ann Hester: Silver Star CSM Ron Riling: Silver Star CPL Jason L. Dunham: Medal of Honor PFC Joseph Perez: Navy Cross COL James Coffman, Jr: Distinguished Service Cross 1LT Karl Gregory: Silver Star 1LT Brian Stann: Silver Star MSG Anthony Pryor: Silver Star TSGT John Chapman: Air Force Cross MSG Sarun Sar: Silver Star 1LT Jeffery Lee: Silver Star SGT James Witkowski: Silver Star SGT Timothy Connors: Silver Star PO2 Juan Rubio: Silver Star SFC David Lowe: Silver Star SGT Leandro Baptista: Silver Star SPC Gerrit Kobes: Silver Star SSG Anthony Viggiani: Navy Cross LCPL Carlos Gomez-Perez: Silver Star MSG Donald R. Hollenbaugh: Distinguished Service Cross SGT Jarred L. Adams: Silver Star 1LT Thomas E Cogan: Silver Star MAJ Mark E. Mitchell: Distinguished Service Cross CPL Robert Mitchell Jr: Navy Cross SGT David Neil Wimberg: Silver Star CWO3 Christopher Palumbo: Silver Star SGT Tommy Rieman: Silver Star SCPO Britt Slabinski: Navy Cross LT David Halderman: FDNY - 9/11/01 1LT Stephen Boada: Silver Star 1LT Neil Prakash: Silver Star SFC Gerald Wolford: Silver Star SSG Matthew Zedwick: Silver Star LCPL Christopher Adlesperger: Navy Cross SGT Joshua Szott: Silver Star SPC Richard Ghent: Silver Star CPL Mark Camp: Silver Star The Veteran CW3 Lori Hill: Distinguished Flying Cross SGT Paul R. Smith: Medal of Honor PFC Ross A. McGinnis: Silver Star SGT Joseph E. Proctor: Silver Star PFC Christopher Fernandez: Silver Star MAJ James Gant: Silver Star 1SG John E. Mangels: Silver Star Staff Sgt Michael Shropshire: Silver Star Staff Sgt Stephen Achey: Silver Star SFC Frederick Allen: Silver Star PO2 (SEAL) Marc A. Lee: Silver Star PFC Stephan C. Sanders, Distinguished Service Cross CPT Joshua Glover: Silver Star CPT Brennan Goltry: Silver Star Cpl. Dale A. Burger: Silver Star CPL Clinton Warrick: Silver Star
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