March 12, 2006 03:29 pm
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You learn much about people by seeing photographs from their past. Even more revealing, however, is the knowledge of the things that have been important to them.
John Franklin Murphy of Cleburne has precise documentation of the events in his life — and now in his retirement years he is using that personal skill for the benefit of others.
I have learned from Murphy that there are many military veterans among us who never received the medals they earned while in World War II.
The war ended abruptly when the Japanese surrendered Aug. 14, 1945. Our military was making last-minute plans to invade Japan when atomic bombs were dropped. When all efforts turned to releasing troops to return them home, the awarding of earned medals sometimes fell through the paper-trail cracks.
“At first the veterans didn’t think much about their medals,” Murphy said. “All they wanted was to get home to their families and friends. As they have grown older, however, they realize it would be nice to have them to leave to their families. I have dedicated myself to the task of making this possible to as many as I possibly can.”
His first efforts helped his brothers, Jack Everette Murphy and George Dewey Murphy. After seeing how proud they were to display their medals, he began to assist other veterans from our area, in cluding Robert A. Kilpatrick Jr.,Donald Marvin McGee, Dr. Roger Dale Noel, Robert Lee McGee, William (Billy) Lewis Tutt, James Burlon Ince, Garry Norman McInnis, Reagan Gordon Barr, Moye Garnett Featherson, Marvin Dale Gosdin, Billy Donald Edmonds and Robert Wyth Wingo. Also, Grady Vernell Meek, Billy Ray Black, Fred Raymond Blackledge, George David Potts Jr., Archie Ray Doty, Horace Martin Clack and James Richard Fox.
As a boy of 17, John Franklin Murphy volunteered for the U.S. Navy on March 10, 1944, in his hometown of Meridian, Miss. I interviewed him after he became a resident of Cleburne, finding him to be a dedicated war historian.
“I took my boot training at the U.S. Naval Training Station, Great Lakes, Ill.,” he said. “I shipped out from Norfolk, Va., on LST 1006, for overseas duty. I arrived at R/S U.S. Naval Station Coco Solo, C.Z., where I was reassigned to the Balboa Section, Panama Sea Frontier, as a radioman. While serving a short tour of duty on the USS YP-321, I qualified as a shellback, April 5, 1945.”
A shellback is someone who has crossed the equator.
One morning before daybreak, Murphy was on his way to the radio room to receive transmissions. What he saw shocked him wide awake.
“I saw a torpedo coming directly at a 45-degree angle towards the bow of our ship. Luckily for us, it passed directly under the ship’s bow. It came and went in just a split second.”
On April 12, 1945, RM 3/c Murphy received the radio message that President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had died.
“No one wanted to believe it. I told them to come to the radio room when the next transmission occurred. Only when they heard the news for themselves did they believe that we had lost our president.”
Several times Murphy was able to board a ship going through the canal to visit a friend. Being stationed in Balboa enabled him to see others from Meridian, including his younger brother, Jack, who was a Merchant Marine.
In October 1945, Murphy was transferred to the USS Paramount (AMc-92), a minesweeper, for duty and transportation to the USN Frontier Base, in Charleston, S.C., where the ship was decommissioned.
While accumulating enough points for discharge, Murphy worked in a laundry and guarded German prisoners of war.
“One of my assignments was to go over on a bus in the mornings to the German prisoner of war camp and bring back the POWs for work details — grass cutting, washing down barrack walls, etc.,” he recalled. “I sat in the back of the bus with a Thompson sub-machine gun as the POWs were brought aboard. Upon arrival at the work site, I watched them carefully.
“No one really wanted to escape. These POWs had been captured in North Africa and had been in the POW camp since 1942. Some showed me their leg wounds and said that they had been wounded by machine gun fire while serving in North Africa.
“We were good to the prisoners. Each morning around 10 a.m., I went with them to the mess hall where we had sandwiches and hot coffee. No one ever went hungry. When the work day was over, about 4 p.m., we returned them to the camp.
Murphy’s last day at the USN Frontier Base, Charleston, S.C., brought him a pleasant surprise, he said.
“I was about to leave the base and had not ridden on the bus that brought the POWs to the base that morning,” Murphy said. “I was dressed in my Navy dress blue uniform. As I approached, one of the prisoners called the others to attention. That was a very nice gesture on their part, I thought. I explained to them that I was on my way to be discharged. The war was over and it seemed to me that they and I were just the same — we had just been on different sides. I was discharged on May 25, 1946, and was eager to go home.”
From 1944 to 1946, Murphy’s mother, Catherine Helen Reece, had written her son over 140 letters (some were 12 to 16 hand-written pages). After his mother’s death, Murphy was handed a box of her papers — an overwhelming collection of World War II memorabilia that no one else really wanted.
“In addition to writing Dewey, Jack and me — her three sons — mother had corresponded with 20 young servicemen from our area at home. She had kept some of their photographs and letters that told their first-hand accounts of the war. One letter was written aboard the USS Missouri BB-63 Sept. 2, 1945 — the day the instrument of surrender was signed at Tokyo Bay, Japan.”
Murphy meticulously divided the contents of the box by names. He summarized each man’s military career and located as many of their appropriate rate and rank badges as possible at military shows. These were placed in plastic-sheathed pages inside an album alongside their correspondence. Many of the young men were well-known by Murphy’s family. Fortunately, none lost their lives or were awarded a Purple Heart.
Murphy served as Air Force captain in the Korean conflict from 1949-1956. He was a member of the launch team for Apollo 11 that went to the moon July 20, 1969. He came to Houston in 1970 with Brown and Root Inc., transferring to Comanche Peak in Glen Rose in 1982 and retiring in 1990. Murphy and his wife, Elizabeth, reside in Cleburne.
John Murphy’s real interest in documenting our
country’s history for citizen use began in 1991, he said, when he made his first contribution of a Civil War collection and artifacts to the History Complex at Hill College in Hillsboro. He has served on the advisory board there since 1993, and now serves as its vice president. Murphy has volunteered hundreds of hours of service in documenting family collections and providing Civil War and World War II data for use there. He has most recently received Vietnam war medals for display at the history complex.
I looked at his photograph as sergeant in the Meridian High School band. The photo was dated 1941. World War II would soon begin.
As a cornet and trumpet player, Murphy had won one regional, six state and two national medals. He wore them proudly on his band uniform. He became a member of Meridian’s Civic Concert Band, which was by invitation only. From 1947-49 he was a member of Mississippi State College’s famous Maroon Band. Those same years he was a first sergeant and first lieutenant in the Air Force ROTC Band. He received his bachelor’s degree from MSC in 1949, graduating as a distinguished military graduate. He followed with graduate study there.
Many years later, with military medals and industrial accomplishments of his own, it is refreshing to see him helping others. John Murphy has helped me. Through his encouragement I will soon have a book, “They Were There,” published by Hill College Press in Hillsboro, documenting the first-person accounts of veterans in World War II that I have written about in this column for the past 11 years.
Thank you, John.
Larue Barnes may be reached at
laruebarnes@yahoo.com
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