Michael P. Murphy

Michael P. Murphy was killed in Kunar Province on June 28, 2005, leading a four-man SEAL reconnaissance team on Operation Red Wings. When the team was compromised and under heavy fire, he moved into the open to get a radio signal out so a quick-reaction force could be called. He was shot while making the call and died of his wounds. Three teammates were also killed; one survived.

The Medal of Honor citation is the public record of that radio call and the stand on the ridge. He was a lieutenant from Long Island, a SEAL of Delivery Vehicle Team 1. Living recipients of the medal from later wars are not listed on this roll. Murphy is listed because he is deceased and the citation is official. This register will not invent what happened on that mountain beyond what the citation and the after-action record support.

He was born in Smithtown, New York, on May 7, 1976. He is buried at Calverton National Cemetery. That is a grave. He is not missing, and this page will not invent an MIA line to make a SEAL death look unfinished. A destroyer, USS Michael Murphy (DDG-112), carries the name.

The photograph is an official U.S. Navy likeness. This page will not borrow a private family's sentences or add dialogue the citation does not contain. It will say a lieutenant walked into the open to make a radio call so other men might be reached, and that the Navy wrote the medal down because the call was made.