[SmokingJoe]

1 hr 16 minutes.

[A Navy Vet]

Audie Murphy is the perfect example of man of short stature doing huge heroic deeds. Although never understood why he became an actor mostly playing himself. Anyone?

[abb]

It does my heart good to read his citation every once in a while.

https://www.si.edu/object/nmah_1062079

2d Lt. Murphy commanded Company B, which was attacked by 6 tanks and waves of infantry. 2d Lt. Murphy ordered his men to withdraw to prepared positions in a woods, while he remained forward at his command post and continued to give fire directions to the artillery by telephone. Behind him, to his right, 1 of our tank destroyers received a direct hit and began to burn. Its crew withdrew to the woods. 2d Lt. Murphy continued to direct artillery fire which killed large numbers of the advancing enemy infantry. With the enemy tanks abreast of his position, 2d Lt. Murphy climbed on the burning tank destroyer, which was in danger of blowing up at any moment, and employed its .50 caliber machine gun against the enemy. He was alone and exposed to German fire from 3 sides, but his deadly fire killed dozens of Germans and caused their infantry attack to waver. The enemy tanks, losing infantry support, began to fall back. For an hour the Germans tried every available weapon to eliminate 2d Lt. Murphy, but he continued to hold his position and wiped out a squad which was trying to creep up unnoticed on his right flank. Germans reached as close as 10 yards, only to be mowed down by his fire. He received a leg wound, but ignored it and continued the single-handed fight until his ammunition was exhausted. He then made his way to his company, refused medical attention, and organized the company in a counterattack which forced the Germans to withdraw. His directing of artillery fire wiped out many of the enemy; he killed or wounded about 50. 2d Lt. Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction, and enabled it to hold the woods which had been the enemy’s objective.

[Deadeye Division]

Presidential Medal of Freedom Petition for Audie Leon Murphy

https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/audiemurphy/

[SES1066]

For those not in the know, the biography of Audie Murphy (1925-71) is nothing less than amazing. A school dropout after 5th grade, he earned money for his mother & 11 siblings by picking cotton and small-game hunting. After Pearl Harbor, he was too young to join but with an older sister's help via an affidavit of birth year, he enlisted in mid 1942 with the US Army.

His WW2 service was the tail-end of North Africa and the Italian Campaign. As a 16-20 year old, he progressed through the enlisted ranks quickly as the casualties were high and openings for ability were frequent. Serving with the 3rd Infantry from Sicily through Anzio, he earned a promotion to Staff Sergeant before he was 18.

After Italy, Sgt Murphy joined the 2nd amphibious invasion of France, 1944 Operation Dragoon on the French Riviera. Now with the 15th Infantry, 2 months after the August landing, Murphy got his 1st of 2 Silver Stars and a battlefield promotion to 2nd Lieutenant. With a lot of the German Army concentrated against the drive out of Normandy and the Eastern (Russian) Front, the joint British, French & US forces were able to push to the Alsace-Lorraine border between France & Germany by December of 1944.

It was there that LT Murphy won his Medal of Honor at the battle of the Colmar Pocket where terrain favored the German defenders. LT Murphy led his company in a probing attack that tripped a larger German counter attack. Sending the rest of his troops back under forrest cover, Murphy decided his best action was a disabled, burning M-10 Tank Destroyer with a usable .50 cal machine gun. Using it until out of ammo, he was able to blunt the counter attack and then rallied his company to continue the advance. So before his 20th birthday, Audie Murphy had earned every valor medal awarded by the Army from the MoH to the ETO ribbon PLUS 3 Purple Hearts.

After VE Day, there was some exploration of sending 1st LT Murphy to post-graduate school at USMA (West Point). For some it seemed like a logical progression but for those advising Murphy, the combination of making up the missing education of 6-12th grades and his battle wounds made this choice somewhat a stretch. As for myself, there is this little piece of tradition that could have been amusing. Any wearer of the MoH, no matter of what rank, disrupts the normal military courtesy of exchanging salutes. While the salute is always from junior to senior (by rank) and held by the junior until acknowledged, a Cadet with the GONG (MoH) receives the honor instead, even from the Sup or visiting Generals. Yeah, not a way to make a good track record there.

[buwaya]

One day while in Austin TX (I was in Texas a lot in my career), a colleague and I had to kill time one hot afternoon, waiting for a dinner-conference. Just by chance we were driving by the Texas State Capitol, and we decided to have a look.

Its an interesting building and all, but my surprise was in the Assembly chamber. Among the portraits of the expected greats, Sam Houston and etc., there was ... Audie Murphy.

Of course he deserves the honor.

[DFG]

Audie Murphy Museum in Greenville, TX (on I-30 east of Dallas)

https://cottonmuseum.com/

Audie Murphy Medal of Honor Museum (Tombstone, AZ)

https://audiemurphymuseum.com/

[Buttons12]

One of the best obituary tributes I’ve seen yet. By Bill Mauldin in Life Magazine.

https://audiemurphy.com/articles/2021-12-04_PartingShots.pdf

“In him we all recognize the straight, raw stuff, uncut and fiery as the day it left the still.”

[lyby]

Seeing a post about Audie Murphy brings back childhood fantasies. As a young teenager, I realized that my actor-idol was a full-fledged war hero and actually older than my parents. His plane crashed within 30 miles as a crow flies of where I grew up, and … well, in the scheme of life, what I felt in those moments are nothing to anyone but me. Audie Murphy is my forever childhood hero.

[lewislynn]

Believe it or not. I was 8yrs old, all by myself, when I saw his movie To HELL AND BACK in a theater.