LEATHERNECKM31

Jerry Murphy dead at 77

The death last Friday of Medal of Honor Recipient Raymond "Jerry" Murphy (Korea) leaves fellow Recipient Drew Dix (Vietnam) as the sole surviving Recipient of Pueblo Colorado-- the small town famous as the "Home of Heroes" because it produced four Recipients... two from the same high school.

"Jerry was one of the most modest men I ever knew," said Dix who attended memorials services for Murphy in Pueblo. "Jerry was one of the most modest men I ever knew," said Drew Dix, a friend and fellow Medal of Honor Recipient.

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"He was one of my heroes as a kid growing up in Pueblo. I can remember pedaling my bike on Jerry Murphy Road as a boy, never imagining that one day, Jerry would be my friend. Pueblo has lost a very special man."

Sitter and Crawford did not live long enough to see unveiled the larger-than-life statues of the four heroes which dominates the Pueblo Medal of Honor Memorial which includes names of the over 3,400 recipients were incorporated on granite slabs mounted on the walls of the City Convention Center just behind the sculptures. 

Also featured is a 35-foot flag pole centered in a water feature, surrounded by a granite bench.  The water feature reminds visitors of President Ike Eisenhower's comment, as he presented the Medal to Murphy, “What is it in the water out there in  Pueblo? All you guys turn out to be heroes.”

Click here for further details on Murphy's war heroics and later years.

Mrs. Murphy and Jerry were seated at a table with me in Shreveport five years ago at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society's annual gathering. The arrangement included my seat mate, a lovely young nurse named Cindy Brooks who knew that her father, a retired, three-war B-52 navigator, would enjoy the event.

He did... and so did Cindy and I.

I more or less served as table captain for the evening which ended with Mrs. Murphy and Jerry asking us to come visit them in their Albuquerque home. Sadly that did not work out; the next time I saw Jerry his health problems had gotten worse and he eventually succumbed to his condition.

His death brings to 110 the number of living Medal of Honor Recipients.

Both Cindy and I have fond memories of the evening with the Murphys which actually began our relationship that continues despite its geographical impediments.

God speed, Jerry... Semper Fi.

The native son heroes also included Bill Crawford (WWII), below left, and Carl Sitter (Korea), third from left, who preceded Murphy, right, in death, passing away within two weeks of each other in 2000. Sitter is buried in Arlington, and Crawford at the Air Force Academy.

Hero Flies West...

16 June, 1943: It was a photo mapping mission; Capt. Jay Zeamer's B-17 crew faced a 1,200-mile, round trip recon mission to help prepare for the invasion of Bougainville. 

It would be Zeamer's 74th, and last, combat mission.

As "Old 666" neared its objective, 20 Jap Zeros lifted off to defend Buka air base. The next couple of hours would result in the only instance of World War II when two members of one air crew received the Medal of Honor for separate and independent acts of heroism in combat in the same engagement.

Zeamer's nose gunner, 2nd Lt. Joseph R. Sarnoski, (below) would be posthousmously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Zeamer's crew would become the most highly decorated unit in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Lt. Col. Zeamer will be buried with full military honors in May at Arlington National Cemetery.

His death at 88 on March 21 brings to 111 the number of living Recipients.

16 June, 1943: It was a photo mapping mission; Capt. Jay Zeamer's B-17 crew faced a 1,200-mile, round trip recon mission to help prepare for the invasion of Bougainville. 

It would be Zeamer's 74th, and last, combat mission.

As "Old 666" neared its objective, 20 Jap Zeros lifted off to defend Buka air base. The next couple of hours would result in the only instance of World War II when two members of one air crew received the Medal of Honor for separate and independent acts of heroism in combat in the same engagement.

Zeamer's nose gunner, 2nd Lt. Joseph R. Sarnoski, (below) would be posthousmously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Zeamer's crew would become the most highly decorated unit in the U.S. Army Air Corps.

Lt. Col. Zeamer will be buried with full military honors in May at Arlington National Cemetery.

His death at 88 on March 21 brings to 111 the number of living Recipients.

Patriots... and not patriots

Today's Medal of Honor Profile:  David McNerney is among six Recipients who will attend next week's Medal of Honor Weekend here in Gainesville.

After a hitch in the Navy in the late 40s, McNerney enlisted in the Army and was nearing retirement age when he entered the fight of his life against a North Vietnamese battalion in 1967.

Then a first sergeant close to retirement, McNerney was rushing to a potential breach in his unit defense when he was blown off his feet by an enemy grenade when his company was ambushed. He quickly recovered, and assaulted and destroyed an enemy machine gun position.

He was seemingly everywhere for the next several hours. Informed that his company commander and a junior officer had been killed, he assumed command of the company and immediately called in artillery fire, often within 20 meters of his own lines.

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Disregarding his own wounds, 1stSgt. McNerney remained in command of the company until he was relived the following day.

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Only two years later McNerney retired and went on to a long career as a U.S. Customs Department inspector.

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He lives in Texas.

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(Editor's note: Next week posts will be spotty as the Southern Command will be immersed in honoring our nation's Recipients. Remember: tomorrow, March 25, is our first national Medal of Honor Day... fly the flag.)

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Former House Speaker Tom Delay sounds like a man just out of a bad, really bad, marriage; in this case, Congress. On a talk show yesterday he said that he had been forced to spend more than $7 million defending himself against the repeated democrat extralegal attacks his 12 years in office.

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No one in their right mind runs for Congress for exactly this reason... and there's the rub.

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And the legal fees for DeLay continue to mount up as he's been forced to defend himself against something that is not a crime... much like Scooter Libby's mad-dog, dem-driven, witch hunt which recently saw him convicted of something having nothing to do with the federal prosecutor's investigation.

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In fact, DeLay felt so happy not to be seeking votes he actually said exactly what he thought: "They're aiding and abetting the enemy", he said of yesterday's 218-212 democrat vote to pull combat troops out of Iraq by next year.

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Democrats secured the "victory" only by purchasing votes from their rank and file by attaching millions in pork projects to the bill.

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Think about it... these are the men and women who control two-thirds of our government at the moment.

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It's "call a spade a spade" time like DeLay does.

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Of course Bush will veto the measure but, but the message has been sent to every Achmed squatting in the desert rigging up IEDs to kill our troops... "just a few more of these and the cowards will be gone."

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Bin Laden uttered this belief with far less conviction back in '93 when Bill Clinton cut and ran from Somalia after we sustained 18 KIAs. Thus encouraged, he set in motion his plan to attack the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and the Capitol.

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Even with the inability to override a presidential veto of such fifth-column legislation, the democrat turncoats can simply hold up appropriations to provide our troops with life and death supplies, ammunition, food and vehicles.

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Without the lap dog news media, 527 groups, lawyers, courts and especially without criminalizing politics, democrats would be incapable of winning federal elections.   

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If you cast a vote for any democrat candidate since this war began, this is on your head... simple as that.