Seal of Honor: Operation Red Wings and the Life of Lt. Michael P. Murphy USN

About this book

Lt. Michael Patrick Murphy a Navy SEAL earned the Medal of Honor on 28 June 2005 for his bravery during a fierce fight with the Taliban in the remote mountains of eastern Afghanistan. The first to receive the nations highest military honor for service in Afghanistan Lt. Murphy was also the first naval officer to earn the medal since the Vietnam War and the first SEAL to be honored posthumously. A young man of great character he is the subject of Naval Special Warfare courses on character and leadership and an Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer naval base school post office ball park and hospital emergency room have been named in his honor. A bestselling book by the sole survivor of Operation Red Wings Marcus Luttrell has helped make Lt. Murphys SEAL teams fateful encounter with the Taliban one of the Afghan wars best known engagements. Published on the 5th anniversary of the engagement SEAL of Honor also tells the story of that fateful battle but it does so from a very different perspective being focused on the life of Lt. Murphy. This biography uses his heroic action during this deadly firefight in Afghanistan as a window on his character and attempts to answer why Lt. Murphy readily sacrificed his life for his comrades. SEAL of Honor is the story of a young man who was noted by his peers for his compassion and for his leadership being guided by an extraordinary sense of duty responsibility and moral clarity. In tracing Lt. Murphys journey from a seemingly ordinary life on New Yorks Long Island to that remote mountainside a half a world away SEAL of Honor will help readers understand how he came to demonstrate the extraordinary heroism and selfless leadership that earned him the nations highest military honor. Moreover the book brings the Afghan war back to the home front focusing on Lt. Murphys tight knit family and the devastating effect of his death upon them as they watched the story of Operation Red Wings unfold in the news. The book attempts to answer why Lt. Murphys service to his country and his comrades was a calling faithfully answered a duty justly upheld and a life while all too short well lived.