, and looked him up at Wikipedia. Here are excerpts from the
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Audie Leon Murphy was born (June 20, 1924) near Kingston, Texas, to Emmett Berry and Josie Bell Murphy (nee Killian), poor sharecroppers, and grew up near Celeste, Texas (Hunt County). Murphy went to school in Celeste until the eighth grade, when he dropped out to help support his family (his father deserted them in 1936), working for a dollar a day, plowing and picking cotton on any farm that would hire him. He became very skilled with a rifle, hunting small game to help feed the family. Murphy was the sixth of twelve children, nine of whom survived until the age of eighteen.
During the 1930s Murphy worked at a combination general store/garage and filling station in Greenville, Texas. At sixteen he was working in a radio repair shop when his mother died on May 23, 1941. Later that year, in agreement with his older sister, Corrinne, Murphy was forced to place his three youngest siblings in an orphanage to ensure their care (he reclaimed them after World War II)
Immediately following the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Murphy (then just 17 years old) tried to enlist in the military, but the services rejected him for being underage. In June 1942, shortly after his 18th birthday, Murphy was accepted into the United States Army, at Greenville, after being turned down by the Marines and the paratroopers for being too short (5’5”) and of slight build . He was sent to Camp Wolters, Texas, for basic training and during a session of close order drill, passed out. His company commander tried to have him transferred to a cook and bakers’ school because of his baby-faced youthfulness, but Murphy insisted on becoming a combat soldier. His wish was granted: after 13 weeks of basic training, he was sent to Fort Meade, Maryland for advanced infantry training….
Following its participation in the Italian campaign, the 3rd Division invaded Southern France on August 15, 1944 (Operation Anvil-Dragoon). Shortly thereafter, Murphy’s best friend, Lattie Tipton (referred to as “Brandon” in Murphy’s book To Hell and Back), was killed while approaching a German soldier who was feigning surrender. Murphy went into a rage, and single-handedly wiped out the German machine gun crew which had just killed his friend. He then used the German machine gun and grenades to destroy several other nearby enemy positions. For this act, Murphy received the Distinguished Service Cross (second only to the Medal of Honor). During seven weeks of fighting in that campaign in France, Murphy’s division had suffered 4,500 casualties.
Just weeks later, he received two Silver Stars for further heroic actions.Murphy, by now a staff sergeant and holding the position of Platoon Sergeant, was eventually awarded a battlefield commission to second lieutenant, which elevated him to the Platoon Leader position. He was wounded in the hip by a sniper’s ricocheting bullet 12 days after the promotion and spent ten weeks recuperating. Within days of returning to his unit, and still bandaged, he became company commander (January 25, 1945), and suffered further wounds from a mortar round which killed two others nearby.
The next day, January 26 (the temperature was 14 degrees with 24 inches of snow on the ground), the battle at Holtzwihr (France) began with Murphy’s unit at an effective strength of 19 out of 128. Murphy sent all of his men to the rear while he took pot-shots at the Germans until out of ammunition. He then proceeded to use an abandoned, burning tank destroyer’s .50 caliber machine gun to cut into the German infantry at a distance, including one full squad of German infantry that had crawled in a ditch to within 100 feet of his position. Wounded in the leg during heavy fire, he continued this nearly single-handed battle for almost an hour. His focus on the battle before him stopped only when his telephone line to the artillery fire direction center was cut by either U.S. or German artillery. As his remaining men came forward, he quickly organized them to conduct a counter attack, which ultimately drove the enemy away from Holtzwihr. These actions earned Murphy the Medal of Honor….
Audie Murphy received 33 U.S. medals, plus five medals from France and one from Belgium. It has been said that he received every U.S. medal available at the time; five of them awarded more than once.
His height and weight at his enlistment were 5 feet 5.5 inches and 110 pounds; after his three year enlistment, they were 5 ft 7 inches and 145 lbs. [LA comments: Meaning that when he enlisted, at age 18, he was still growing.]