It’s always a delight to hear the stories shared by veterans, their tales of courage and duty to put their lives aside to protect and serve this country in ways you and I can hardly imagine.
Some of the best stories come from the people you might interact with every day, the people you see at the grocery store or who might live down your street, and would have no idea they were once a young soldier on the field of battle.
Veterans from any walk of life have a great story, but then there are others throughout history that you can’t help but be amazed at how their life turned out, much of it due to their decision to enlist in the fight to defend their country. This is especially true with what’s been considered “The Greatest Generation” during World War II.
I was familiar with the name Audie Murphy, who was touted as the most-decorated soldier in the history of the U.S. Military during his service in World War II, receiving just about every major medal from the U.S., as well as additional medals of honor from countries like France and Belgium.
It’s staggering when you realize he did all of this before he was even 20 years old, falsifying documents to enlist in the Army while underage, and later facing off against Nazis during the world’s biggest war with nothing but his gun, his comrades and a level of courage some might say was more crazy than brave.
After being wounded in battle, Murphy’s future in the military was pretty much over. Yet his life as an American icon was only beginning.
At the recommendation of James Cagney, of all people, Murphy was recruited by Hollywood to star in movies, his first being the epic autobiographical story, “To Hell and Back,” based on his memoir of the same name. In the film, Murphy plays himself, first as a young Texas sharecropper with little education, to being turned down by the Marines and Navy because he was “too small to be a soldier.”
The film later details Murphy’s battles in Italy and France, his relationship with his fellow squad members and the many moments of heroism that led to all of his accolades.
Try to imagine what that was like. It’s 1955 and you are not even 10 years removed from the world’s biggest war, and now you are tasked with putting on that uniform and reliving it all over again for the big screen. That had to have been a lot to cope with, especially in the days when we weren’t all familiar with the lasting effects PTSD can have on a person.
Murphy would spend the next few decades starring in more than 40 pictures, many of them westerns, and a TV show. He even at one point pursued a songwriting career.
Murphy’s life was tragically cut short in 1971 at age 45 after a private plane he was riding in crashed into the side of a mountain northwest of Roanoke, Virginia. A large granite marker now sits along the Appalachian Trail near the crash site.
While he might have lived many more years with many more successes, Murphy’s relatively short life seems like something, pardon the pun, out of a movie. From a poor Texas farmer to international war hero to big-time Hollywood movie star, it’s really quite amazing.
And again, all of his service work and medals of valor were earned when he was just 19. That’s wild, unfathomable, but above all a story of inspiration unlike any other.
Jay Powell is a reporter for The Daily Herald. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter @JayPowellCDH.