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Audie Murphy: America's most decorated soldier
As Veterans Day (for many years known as Armistice Day) approached once again, we tended to reflect on family and friends who fought in past wars in the protection of our country. This year, in addition to thinking about family and friends who fought in the war, it seems like a good idea to reflect on the military service of the fellow who was America's most decorated service man of World War II, Audie Murphy.
Audie Murphy was an unlikely hero. He grew up on a sharecropper's farm near Greenville, Texas. He was the sixth of 12 children of Emmett and Jose Bell Murphy. His early life was difficult. The Murphy family was dirt poor. Only nine of the 12 children managed to live to see their 18th birthday. Food was scarce and before his ninth birthday, Audie was using his rifle to supply the family table with rabbits and squirrels. When he was 12, in 1936 his father deserted the family and never returned. Audie dropped out of school and hired out as a farmer's helper at $1 a day to help make ends meet. At age 16 things got worse. Audie was working in a radio repair shop when his mother, Josie Bell died and Audie was charged with placing his three youngest siblings in an orphanage to satisfy his mother's deathbed request.
Immediately after the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 Audie Murphy volunteered to enter the United States Marine Corps. He was just 17 and needed parental consent to enlist, so he lied about his age. The Marines didn't want him. They said he was too small, too skinny and short of the minimum height requirements. He tried to enlist in the paratroopers. Again he was denied -- too small. Despondent over being turned down twice, he applied for enlistment in the Army Infantry.
Following basic training, Murphy was assigned to the 15th Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in North Africa, as a Private, just in time to take part in the invasion of Sicily. It was there that he saw his first combat. He proved himself to be a highly skilled soldier and a proficient marksman.
Taking part in the Italian campaign, from Salerno, to the Voltuna River, and at Anzio, he was a part of the Allied force, which fought its way to Rome. Murphy earned promotions in rank as his superior officers were transferred, wounded or killed. In the capture of Rome Murphy earned his first decoration for gallantry.
Murphy's outfit was withdrawn from Italy to train for Operation Anvil-Dragon, which became the invasion of Southern France. During seven weeks of fighting in that successful campaign, his division suffered some 4,500 casualties, and Audie Mur-phy became one of the most decorated men in his company. But this was just the beginning.
On Jan. 26, 1945, just after the Battle of the Bulge, Murphy, by this time a Lieutenant and a Company Commander, brought his company into combat with German troops near the village of Holtzwir in Eastern France. Facing an onslaught of six Panzer Tanks and 250 infantrymen, Murphy or-dered his men to fall back into the forest to better their defenses. Alone, he mounted an abandoned, burning, tank destroyer (which was in danger of blowing up at any moment), and using the tank's single machine gun, he fought off repeated attacks by the enemy, while at the same time directing US artillery fire upon the Panzer tanks and infantry.
For an hour the Germans used every available weapon to dislodge Murphy from the burning tank destroyer. They attacked from three sides, sometimes getting within ten yards of Murphy's position. In the heavy fighting he single handedly killed some 50 of the enemy and caused the infantry attacks to waver. During this period Murphy received a severe leg wound, but ignored it and continued firing, until his ammunition was exhausted.
Only then did he make his way back to his unit. Still, refusing medical attention he directed his company in a counter attack on the enemy, who were forced to withdraw. When the military objective was secured Lt. Murphy allowed himself to be cared for. Machine gun resting on his stomach, he ordered four of his German prisoners to carry him on a stretcher, back to rear medical unit where medics began to care for his wounds.
From his Congressional Medal of Honor citation, which is the nation's highest military award, given for "gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty".
" ... 2nd Lt. Murphy's indomitable courage and refusal to yield … ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction … which had been the enemy's objective."
By the end of Audie Murphy's three years of active service he had been awarded 33 medals and decorations for bravery, including five from France and Belgium. He had fought in nine major campaigns across the European, and was credited with killing over 240 of the enemy while wounding and capturing many others. The U.S. Army said, "His exploits will probably never be repeated by another soldier … there will never be another Audie Murphy."
After a hero's welcome in New York, Murphy was released from active Army service in Sept. 1945. He was still not yet 21. During this time veteran actor, James Cagney invited Murphy to Hollywood and helped him to begin a career in motion pictures. Over the next 15 years Murphy made 44 feature films -- mostly westerns.
Murphy's return to civilian life, while seemingly smooth, was not without its problems. Audie suffered from what is now known as PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. For at least two years he slept with a pistol under his pillow, and awoke frequently screaming from nightmares. In the 1960s, he became a spokesman for PTSD, and helped other veterans in their struggles to rid themselves from wartime memories.
In 1949 Murphy's wartime best selling biography, "To Hell and Back," was made into a picture, with Audie Murphy in the starring role. The picture became one of the most successful in Universal Picture history.
In making the picture, directors had to repeatedly downsize Murphy's exploits (numbers of the enemy killed, tanks knocked out, etc.). "The public would never believe it," was their explanation.
Murphy never did forget his Texas roots. His movie earnings enabled him to invest in ranch properties in Texas, as well as in California. He was a successful Thoroughbred and Quarter Horse racehorse owner and breeder.
He loved to gamble and won and lost fortunes betting on racehorses.
Audie Murphy wrote poetry and was quite successful as a songwriter.
He teamed up with artists such as Dean Martin, Porter Waggoner, and Roy Clark. One of his biggest hits was "The Wind Blows in Chi-cago," made popular by Eddie Arnold.
While on a business trip Memorial Day Weekend in 1971, Audie Murphy was a passenger in a plane flying in fog and rain, which crashed into the side of a mountain near Roanoke, Va., along with the pilot and five others.
Audie Murphy was buried with full military honors. Murphy's is the second most visited gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery. (Pres-ident Kennedy's gravesite is the most visited).
In 1996 Gov. Bush and the Texas Legislature officially designated June 20th as "Audie Murphy Day" in the State of Texas.