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Navy to name ship after Lt. Michael Murphy (MOH)
A U.S. Navy destroyer will be named after Lt. Michael P. Murphy, the Patchogue native who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 while seeking help for his platoon members who had come under intense fire from the Taliban, officials said Wednesday.At a ceremony on the eastern shore of Lake Ronkonkoma -- in a Brookhaven Town beach previously named after Murphy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor last September -- Navy Secretary Donald Winter said the keel of the destroyer would be laid in June 2009 at a shipyard in Maine. He said the ship would be commissioned in 2011. Winter said Navy warships have traditionally been named after major historical figures, such as American presidents. He said the naming of the destroyer after Murphy was "an opportunity to recognize this new generation of heroes." Murphy had been a lifeguard on the same Ronkonkoma beach when he was growing up in Patchogue. The announcement pleased the slain sailor's family. "I am at a loss; what do you say?" said Murphy's father, Daniel Murphy, of Wading River. " 'Thank you' seems so trivial in light of such an honor to our son." Murphy and a four-man Navy SEAL team were hiding on a mountainside in eastern Afghanistan trailing a Taliban leader when they were surrounded by dozens of fighters. In receiving the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award, Murphy was cited for exposing himself to enemy fire while trying to radio for help. Murphy and two others were killed; a fourth SEAL was saved when an Afghan herder came upon him and took him to his village for safekeeping. Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command under which Murphy served, said the ship's naming represents the pinnacle of naval honors. "His was a courageous act," Kernan said. "If you have a ship named after you, you've done something extraordinary." Posted by: Sherry 2008-05-08 |
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