[NKP_Vet]

“I never liked being called the ‘most decorated’ soldier. There were so many guys who should have gotten medals and never did–guys who were killed.”

Audie Murphy

http://www.audiemurphy.com/

[rktman]

RIP Audie. And thanks.

[Enterprise]

"Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire."

Considering that he was using a .50 caliber, they were mowed down and put through a wood chipper.

[mountainlion]

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001559/?ref_=nv_sr_1

[GreyFriar]

NKP, Thank you for the reminder of this valiant and humble soldier’s birth 88 years ago.

His memory and spirit remains alive in the US Army via the “Sergeant Audie Murphy Club” to which outstanding soldiers are nominated.

See these two websites:

http://www.audiemurphy.com/samc.htm

http://carlislebarracks.carlisle.army.mil/about/AudieMurphy/audidocs/audidocs/USAWCSAMCStudyGuide.pdf

[Tupelo]

As a result of the Anzio Landing, Audie Murphy hated General Mark Clark, whom he personally blamed for the deaths of many of his friends and comrades. One story I have read was, Murphy was to give Clark a tour of a movie studio as a publicity stunt for the movie. “To Hell and Back”.
Story goes Murphy made Clark wait while he had lunch or worked or something like that. Told that he was ‘keeping the GENERAL waiting’, Murphy responded, Let the Son of a Bitch wait, I have the Medal. Murphy did understand the protocol for the Medal of Honor.

[Second Amendment First]

I remember reading “To Hell and Back” in high school. What a different place America was then.

[DeFault User]

Most movies exaggerate the exploits of the heroes. After watching To Hell and Back recently, I reread Murphy's Medal of Honor Citation and came to the same conclusion as the author of the article.

His battlefield exploits were toned down, partially out of modesty by Murphy, but also because the reality of what he did would have seemed simply unbelievable on the screen.

[Tax-chick]

I saw one of his uniforms in a museum in Texas. He was tiny.

[Bobalu]

God bless little Audie, the real life “Little Big Man”

[vetvetdoug]

I remembered when all of Lt. Murphy's awards, uniforms, weapons and memorabilia was on display in Willie Nelson's little museum across from the Opryland Hotel. I was stunned that this heroic man's personal items were in a small tourist museum and not at the Smithsonian or a major Army museum. They have since been moved.

[miss marmelstein]

And everyone show your kids Audie’s classic film “The Red Badge of Courage” directed by John Huston. He and Bill Mauldin are both touching and funny as two silly young boys who are forced to become men.

Also, his other gem “The Unforgiven,” also directed by Huston in which Audie plays a racist cowboy - he’s terrific. Huston always called Murphy “his killer angel.”

He never really got treated for serious PTSD which led to trouble with alcohol and violence and gambling. He actually borrowed money from the Mob to fund his gambling. Poor man.

[oh8eleven]

“I never liked being called the ‘most decorated’ soldier. There were so many guys who should have gotten medals and never did – guys who were killed.”
Same thing the three surviving Iwo Jima flag raisers said - the real heroes were the ones who didn't make it.

[WKUHilltopper]

Can you imagine the swishy “actors” we have now doing what Audy and other combat veteran actors had to do? Those guys were real men. What we have now are trendies and metro-sexuals. pathetic.

[UnwashedPeasant]

Form the end of his book, "To Hell and Back":

When I was a child, I was told that men were branded by war. Has the brand been put on me? Have the years of blood and ruin stripped me of all decency? Of all belief?

Not of all belief. I believe in the force of a hand grenade, the power of artillery, the accuracy of a Garand. I believe in hitting before you get hit, and that dead men do not look noble.

But I also believe in men like Brandon and Novak and Swope and Kerrigan; and all the men who stood up against the enemy, taking their beatings without whimper and their triumphs without boasting. The men who went and would go again to hell and back to preserve what our country thinks right and decent.

[Shark24]

Thank you for a great post.

[virgil283]

Thanks NKP good post....You never see a true hero bragging about what he did.

The best line in the movie was - Kerrigan: [after a jumpy Murphy shoots at his own image in a mirror] "Man, that's the first time I ever seen a Texan beat himself to the draw. "

[jch10]

Thanks for this post. I enjoyed remembering Audie.