Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
Long Island Newsday
November 28, 2007
Pg. 19
New headstone denotes Navy SEAL's Medal of Honor
By Luis Perez
Amid the sea of marble headstones at Calverton National Cemetery, a single marker now shines with gold.
It was sunk into the earth yesterday morning - replacing one with ebony lettering - after a simple, low-key ceremony for Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor interred in the 30-year-old cemetery.
Murphy's father said he had another reason to be proud of the regal lettering that flickered on the 240-pound slab of white Vermont marble under soft morning light.
"It's significant because he had a heart full of gold for everyone," said Daniel Murphy.
Murphy, 29, was killed during a firefight with dozens of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. He is the first Navy SEAL since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously during a White House ceremony last month. Murphy also is one of just three servicemen awarded the medal since the 2001 terror attacks; the other two soldiers received it for service in Iraq.
Yesterday, in a graveyard that contained 201,639 plots dating to the first World War, Murphy's grave, in section 67, site 3710, stood among 11 others dedicated to soldiers killed during Operation Enduring Freedom. It shares the same cross engraved on other headstones in the cemetery, but the 42-inch-tall marker also bears a likeness of the nation's highest military honor - an inverted, five-pointed star that graces the markers of all Medal of Honor recipients.
Murphy is the 18th Long Islander awarded the Medal of Honor. Nineteen soldiers who share that distinction are buried in Long Island National Cemetery; one recipient, Army Pfc. Garfield M. Langhorn, is buried in Riverhead Cemetery.
Cemetery director Michael Picerno said the original headstone - which like all others at the cemetery has crisp, ebony lettering - will be buried there as a sign of respect.
The spot next to Murphy's headstone is empty. But his father, who earned a Purple Heart during the Vietnam War, hopes to be buried there.
"There's a request in at the Veterans Administration office," Daniel Murphy said. "And at the bottom of my headstone will be the words 'Together again.' That brings me some comfort, to know that we'll be together again."
November 28, 2007
Pg. 19
New headstone denotes Navy SEAL's Medal of Honor
By Luis Perez
Amid the sea of marble headstones at Calverton National Cemetery, a single marker now shines with gold.
It was sunk into the earth yesterday morning - replacing one with ebony lettering - after a simple, low-key ceremony for Navy SEAL Lt. Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue, the first recipient of the Medal of Honor interred in the 30-year-old cemetery.
Murphy's father said he had another reason to be proud of the regal lettering that flickered on the 240-pound slab of white Vermont marble under soft morning light.
"It's significant because he had a heart full of gold for everyone," said Daniel Murphy.
Murphy, 29, was killed during a firefight with dozens of Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. He is the first Navy SEAL since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor, awarded posthumously during a White House ceremony last month. Murphy also is one of just three servicemen awarded the medal since the 2001 terror attacks; the other two soldiers received it for service in Iraq.
Yesterday, in a graveyard that contained 201,639 plots dating to the first World War, Murphy's grave, in section 67, site 3710, stood among 11 others dedicated to soldiers killed during Operation Enduring Freedom. It shares the same cross engraved on other headstones in the cemetery, but the 42-inch-tall marker also bears a likeness of the nation's highest military honor - an inverted, five-pointed star that graces the markers of all Medal of Honor recipients.
Murphy is the 18th Long Islander awarded the Medal of Honor. Nineteen soldiers who share that distinction are buried in Long Island National Cemetery; one recipient, Army Pfc. Garfield M. Langhorn, is buried in Riverhead Cemetery.
Cemetery director Michael Picerno said the original headstone - which like all others at the cemetery has crisp, ebony lettering - will be buried there as a sign of respect.
The spot next to Murphy's headstone is empty. But his father, who earned a Purple Heart during the Vietnam War, hopes to be buried there.
"There's a request in at the Veterans Administration office," Daniel Murphy said. "And at the bottom of my headstone will be the words 'Together again.' That brings me some comfort, to know that we'll be together again."