Profiles of Valor: Audie Murphy

Born the seventh of 12 children in a sharecropper family in Hunt County, Texas, Audie Murphy dropped out of school in fifth grade in order to pick cotton for a dollar a day. His was a hard upbringing and very difficult life.

Like many young men in rural areas, he became proficient with a rifle and as a hunter. He had always wanted to be a soldier, and after the attack on Pearl Harbor he attempted to enlist, but the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps turned him away because he was both underage and, as a slight 5-foot-5, also underweight. With the help of his sister, he falsified documents to show he was old enough to serve, as did many at the time, and the Army accepted him for service in 1942. In a battle in the Vosges Mountains in eastern France in January 1945, Murphy’s actions would result in his being awarded the Medal of Honor. As his men were under imminent threat, he mounted a burning tank destroyer and used its .50 caliber machine gun for over an hour to kill or wound more than 50 approaching Germans.

Asked by a commander via a field telephone about the proximity of those Germans, Murphy responded, “Just hold the phone and I’ll let you talk to one of the bastards.”

His Medal of Honor citation notes, “Murphy’s indomitable courage and his refusal to give an inch of ground saved his company from possible encirclement and destruction.”