 |
| Captain William Murphy, shown with wife and son in the photo above, earned the Silver Star on Kwajalein. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/156322800/charles-william-murphy https://www.worldwarphotos.info/gallery/usa/pacific/kwajalein/7th-infantry-division-soldiers-advance-on-kwajalein/ |
Charles William Murphy, Jr. never had a chance to reach 100 years old today. Instead, he sacrificed his life for our freedom.
He was born on August 24, 1919 in Salt Creek, Wyoming. His parents Charles and Irene were born in South Dakota and Illinois, respectively. His father worked as a pool hall clerk and later as a pool hall owner in Nampa, Idaho. Charles had a young brother and younger sister. By 1940 Charles junior had completed two years of college. He was still living at home and worked as a fraternity home treasurer. He went on to graduate from the University of Idaho and married Billie Louise. They had one son.
The day after he graduated from college, June 10, 1941, Charles was commissioned an officer in the US Army. He rose to the rank of captain in Company C, 1st Battalion, 32nd Infantry Regiment, 7th Infantry Division. The 7th ID was stationed in California when the war started. It first saw action in Attu, Alaska in May 1943. Moved to the Marshall Islands in January 1944, it took part in the capture of Kwajalein.
The 7th Infantry Division landed on Kwajalein Atoll on January 31, 1944, the next stop on the planned island hopping to Japan.
Captain Murphy was wounded on February 3 while Company C was busy clearing out Japanese from hidden installations on the final day of the battle. He died two days later. The 7th ID lost 176 men KIA in taking Kwajalein, relatively light casualties compared to what would happen later at Leyte and Okinawa.
According to a March 25, 1945 Idaho Stateman newspaper story, Captain Murphy earned the Bronze Star at Attu and the Silver Star at Kwajalein on the day he was mortally wounded. Unfortunately, I was not able to find either citation.
His grave is at Cloverdale Memorial Park in Boise, Idaho. I don't know what happened to his widow and son.
Last year on this date I profiled John Lanzi, 1st Special Forces, aka the Devil's Brigade. You can read about John here.
On behalf of the fallen, if you would like to see more people become aware of this project to honor the WW2 fallen, be sure to share with others on Twitter, Facebook, etc. Thanks for your interest!
I created this video to explain why I started this project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXt8QA481lY.
Please consider joining the public Facebook group to increase the exposure of this project. Go to: WW2 Fallen 100
No comments:
Post a Comment