A NON-PROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION

PresidentTerry M. Murphy

Vice PresidentChris J. Glazier

Executive DirectorLarryann C. Willis, Esq.

PO Box 1804Orinda, CA 94563

Toll Free Phone/Fax: (888) 314-AMRFEmail: audiemurphy@juno.com

AUDIE MURPHY RESEARCH FOUNDATION

A month after the press conference referred to inthe above press clipping, Dad’s story appeared in theDallas Times Herald.

He was in a tough position. He wanted to bepolite and answer questions, yet he didn’t want totalk about his medals; he wanted to help the army(and this would require public appearances), yet hedesperately wanted — needed — privacy. I think hewas hoping this series of articles for InternationalNews Service would satisfy everybody.

The language is simple and trenchant. Manydetails, some of them brutal, are vivid to him; how-ever, a larger and more emotionally charged incidentis still somewhat obscured:

The citation for the Distinguished Service Cross, my only way of knowing exactly

what happened, says: . . .

This action involved the death of his close friend(and father figure), Lattie Tipton. It would take moretime for the riot of sights and sounds and feelings toquiet down and become orderly. He would rememberall of it when he could handle all of it.

When I first read this material, I was pinned by thelast sentence: it was so hopeful and so plaintive. Itwas so innocent.

I know what he had gone through, and I knowwhat he would yet go through, so that last sentencepins me every time. That last sentence kills me.

Terry Murphy

Courtesy of Bill Bowen

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 1945

Heroes HonoredBy Thousands AtSan Antonio Fete***By WILLIAM C. BARNARD San Antoio, June 14 (AP).-

Lieut. Murphy was a big hit,his youth, pleasant personalityand bashful modesty drew peoplearound him wherever he went.There were chuckles at a pressconference when the freckled lieu-tenant shrank from telling a girlreporter details of how he wonthe Congressional Medal of Hon-or in France. “Oh, no, not that,” Murphygroaned.

A NON-PROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION

PresidentTerry M. Murphy

Vice PresidentChris J. Glazier

Executive DirectorLarryann C. Willis, Esq.

PO Box 1804Orinda, CA 94563

Toll Free Phone/Fax: (888) 314-AMRFEmail: audiemurphy@juno.com

VOLUME 4 SPRING 1998 © 1998

AUDIE MURPHY RESEARCH FOUNDATION

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© 1998. Permission hereby granted for excerpt reproduction by educators, newspapers, magazines and newsletters conditioned upon theAudie Murphy Research Foundation being credited as the source. All other uses prohibited without written permission from the copyrightholder.

I’d rather return to the ColmarPocket in France than face another“welcome home” or review anotherparade. That’s what I wrote my com-manding officer, Col. H. D. Edson,shortly after I returned from France,and after 30 days of leave and with a30-day extension ahead of me, it stillgoes.

But you can’t say “no” to peoplewho are honoring you, and I appreci-ate all that has been done for me. It’sjust that I have so little time to my-self.

I was awarded every combat medalan infantryman can win. There were jobsfor my unit to do, and it was easier forme to do them than to ask for volunteersand take a chance on some of them get-ting killed.

Anyway, I’m lucky. Even our messsergeant was wounded three times be-fore I got a scratch, and you know howfar behind the lines he’d be. My luckwas running out, though. In the sixmonths before VE-Day, I was woundedthree times. My right hip still bothersme, but my right heel and left leg areO.K.

My medals are the Bronze Star, theDistinguished Service Cross, the SilverStar with an Oak Leaf Cluster, the Le-gion of Merit, the Congressional Medalof Honor, the Combat Infantryman’sBadge and the Purple Heart with twoOak Leaf Clusters. There are seven cam-paign stars on my European Theater ofOperations Ribbon, and there are twoFrench medals, the Croix de Guerre with

Palm, a unit citation, and the Croix deGuerre with Silver Star, an individualcitation.

The ribbons representing those med-als make a nice color combination onmy chest, and I’m proud of them. Iwouldn’t part with any one of them foranything. But in spite of that, theyweren’t worth what I went through. Mybirth certificate says I’m 21 years old,but I’m actually much older. You’ll un-derstand when you know more about thelast few years of my life.

I enlisted in Greenville, Tex., June

30, 1942. That was 10 days after my 18thbirthday. I had quit school at the end ofthe eighth grade and worked in a radiorepair shop and other jobs for four yearsbefore that.

After basic and advanced training, Ilanded in Casablanca in February, 1943,as a private in a bunch of replacementsfor the 15th Regiment of the Third In-fantry Division. We were moving up tothe front for action when the AfrikaCorps gave up. After amphibious train-ing, I landed with the first wave on Sic-ily on D-Day, July 10, 1943. In that cam-

-A.P. Wirephoto.

SAN ANTONIO, June 13 - (AP) - “I SURE WOULDN’T WANT TO ASK THE GENERAL to pose forany picture with me,” said Lieut. Audie Murphy, embarrassed holder of the congressional medal ofhonor and every other decoration on the list. But someone else did ask the general, and the general -Lieut. Gen. Ira C. Eaker - grabbed the Farmersville, Texas, boy’s hand and said, “This is a real pleasure.”Eaker is at right, Murphy at left.

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paign I was promoted to corporal.Then we moved on to Salerno in

Italy, after the 36th Division had estab-lished a foothold. During the advancetoward Cassino, I was promoted to ser-geant. We were pulled out of the lineagain and given more special training forthe landing at Anzio.

I was in the hospital with malaria andmy new staff sergeant stripes when myoutfit landed at Anzio Jan. 22, 1944.Five days later I recovered and returnedto action —just before hell broke loose.

We tried four attacks. All werestopped with heavy casualties. So wedug in, determined to hold. I’ve neverseen so much rain and mud. Our fox-holes were half full of mud and the otherhalf full of water. To forget the mo-notony of the rain, some of us volun-teered for patrol duty our off hours.

The night of March 2, I was leading

six other guys on patrol along the front.We spotted a German tank that had beendamaged. Because I thought some of theKrauts might have slipped up to repairthe tank in the dark, I left my men in aditch 200 yards from it and crawledslowly through the mud toward the tank.

I was afraid to make any noise. No,that’s not right. I was just plain afraid.Anyone who tells you he isn’t scared ina spot like that is a liar. I was wishingmy shirt didn’t have any buttons so Icould get closer to the ground.

When I was within 15 or 20 yardsof the tank, I set up a grenade launcher,fired and scored six hits. The Nazisdidn’t like that. They opened fire fromall directions, converging on the tank andits immediate vicinity. I could see trac-ers criss-crossing a few inches from theground and not nearly far enough away.

I didn’t worry about making noise

then. I jumped up and got out of there— probably the fastest 200-yard dash inhistory.

As soon as my men and I had re-turned to safety — as safe as anyonecould be at Anzio, that is — we had alot of laughs over the whole thing. Butfor the half hour I was crawling towardthat tank and firing at it, there wasn’t any-thing funny about it.

That was how I got the Bronze Star.“Valorous conduct in action,” the cita-tion calls it. I think I was lucky.

“The perfect landing,” military of-ficials call the invasion of SouthernFrance. Maybe it was, strategically, butthere was nothing perfect about it whereI was.

After we broke through from theAnzio beachhead and chased the Krautsto Rome, the Third Division was movedback to Naples for more amphibious

Courtesy of Bill Bowen

Texas’ Most Decorated HeroSkips San Antonio BanquetBy Associated Press. San Antonio, June 14.-TwoTexas stars of San Antonio’s warhero celebration, Lt. Gen. IraEaker, chief of air staff, and Lt.Audie Murphy, one of the nation’stwo most decorated men, left to-day for celebrations in their homeareas.

* * *Murphy Is Big Hit. Lieutenant Murphy was a bighit. His youth, pleasant personal-ity and bashful modesty drew acrowd around him wherever hewent. There were chuckles at apress conference when the freckledlieutenant shrank from telling agirl reporter details of how he wonthe Congressional Medal of Honorin France. Someone else told her how theofficer single-handedly manned themachine gun on a burning tankdestroyer to kill or wound 50 Ger-mans and wreck an attack by sixtanks and 200 infantrymen. “Will there be a parade for youat Farmersville?” another reporterwanted to know. “I don’t see why there shouldbe,” Murphy replied. Winner of three Purple Hearts,Murphy was bothered by an oldhip wound and didn’t participate inthe whole celebration. He wasin the parade but he wasn’t spottedin a later gondola parade onthe San Antonio river and hedidn’t show up at a reception andbanquet. The generals were intro-duced at the banquet and spokebriefly and then the toastmastersaid he had a big treat for theaudience - a look at the man whowon every medal in the book. Thenhe shouted the name of AudieMurphy and commanded Murphyto stand up. Murphy probably hadfigured something like that mighthappen. Anyway, he wasn’t there.

* * *Receptions Scare Him. As for Farmerville’s plans forhim, the mere thought of a bigreception has him “scared todeath.”

training for the Southern France inva-sion.

Company B, my outfit, landed nearRamatuelle, on the Riviera, at 8 a.m.August 15, 1944, with the first wave ofthe assault. Since I’ve been home I’veheard a lot of people say the landings inSouthern France were soft. That’s nottrue. We had plenty of trouble and thefighting was tough, at least until we hadestablished a hold.

As my rifle platoon and I moved in-land from the beach, we were halted bymachine gun fire from a rocky ridgeahead of us. We dropped to the groundand crawled quickly to cover.

There was only one thing to do, andI couldn’t ask any of my men to do it. Imade another dash — this one for 40yards with bullets whizzing all aroundme — to a ditch, and returned to thebeach. There I found a machine gunsquad and borrowed one of their weap-ons. Another trip through the ditch andanother 40-yard dash, the longest 40yards I’ve ever run.

I told my men I was going to crawlahead of the platoon and see what I coulddo about that Kraut installation.

“I’m going too,” Pfc. Lattie Tipton,33, of Erwin, Tenn., said.

Lattie and I had shared foxholes eversince the invasion of Sicily. He hadturned down a sergeant’s rating so hecould stay with me as my runner. Thatday he had been shot through the left ear,and was bleeding a lot. But when I or-dered him back to the beach for medicaltreatment, he refused. I knew hewouldn’t pay any attention if I told himto stay with the platoon now. I shouldhave made him stay.

“OK Lattie,” I said. “Let’s go.” Wecrawled out of the ditch and inched ourway 75 yards up the side of the hill.There we found another ditch, and setup the machine gun.

As we prepared to fire, the Krautslet up in their shooting, and we saw awhite flag waving at the top of the ridge.

“This looks funny,” Lattie said, “butI’m going up and get them. Keep mecovered.”

He crawled out of the ditch andstood up. There was a burst of machinegun fire, and Lattie fell back into theditch on top of me.

He was dead.I must have gone crazy then. I don’t

remember much of what happened afterthat. I remember using a German ma-chine pistol I picked up somewhere,maybe from the Kraut whose lower jawhad been shot to bits and every time hetried to scream a stream of blood spurtedout. I wish I didn’t remember that.

The citation for the DistinguishedService Cross, my only way of knowingexactly what happened, says:

“In the duel which ensued, SergeantMurphy silenced the enemy weapon,killed two of the crew and wounded athird. As he proceeded, two Germansadvanced toward him. Quickly destroy-ing both of them, he dashed alone to-ward the enemy strong point, disregard-ing bullets which glanced off rocksaround him and hand grenades whichexploded so close as 15 yards away.Closing in, he wounded two Germanswith carbine fire, killed two more in afierce, brief fire-fight, and forced theremaining five to surrender.

“His extraordinary heroism resultedin the capture of a fiercely contestedenemy-held hill and the annihilation or

capture of the entire enemy garrison.”About those five who were “forced

to surrender” — we didn’t take any pris-oners except those wounded men. Don’tlet anyone tell you the American soldieris soft. When he gets mad he is as roughas any of them. I figured every Kraut Ikilled put me a mile or so nearer Texas.

After the hill was taken, I was tiredand mad and sad. I couldn’t forgetLattie’s 12-year-old daughter. He hadread me parts of nearly every letter hehad received from her.

After the break-through nearRamatuelle, France, it was mostly amatter of marching. The Germans didn’thave time to establish a line of defense—just delaying action and road blockswhile they fled to the Belfort Gap.

Near Montelimar, the First Battal-ion of the 15th Infantry received a unitcitation from President Roosevelt, forbeing “mainly responsible for destroy-ing German resistance south of theDrome and east of the Rhone Rivers,”to quote the citation.

My part in that action was small. Aswe approached Montelimar, we caughtthe German artillery by surprise. Wewere within 400 yards of them beforethey noticed us, and 200 yards beforethey could get their guns ready. Thenwe were safer going ahead than retreat-

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CELEBRATION SET FOR BEMEDALED TEXAN

Farmersville Afraid Its Hero Will Slip in Back Door to Avoid Welcome

10, and his sisters, Nadine andBillie, from the Boles OrphansHome at Greenville. And there will be a lot of re-spect for Audie Murphy in theaudience that day because, asMayor Beaver said, “That boynever had a thing handed him ona silver platter - he left homewhen he was 12 and he’s madehis own way ever since.” And Poland Burns, the lieuten-ant’s brother-in-law, commented:“Audie’s whole life has been plen-ty tough and he’s the gamest littlefellow I ever knew. About the onlyfun he ever had was hunting. Heused a slingshot and actuallykilled rabbits and birds with it.What he was able to do with amachine gun didn’t surprise meat all.”

FARMERSVILLE, June 8 (AP).-Lt. Audie Murphy, one of the twomost decorated men in the U. S.Army, is supposed to be on his way home from Europe and con-versationally speaking, the big onioncrop hereabouts doesn’t ratea smell. In the words of Mayor R. B. Bea-ver, 20-year-old Audie is going to getthe biggest reception anyFarmersville boy ever got, “wheth-er he likes it or not.” But leaders of this agriculturalcommunity are nervous as a mouseat a cat convention for fear Audie,who carries every medal a footsoldier can win, will “sneak in theback door” as he promised. Mayor Beaver scratched wor-riedly at his chin whiskers. “It wouldbe just like that little rascal

to try to get past our welcomingcommittee,” he said. “He’s terriblymodest and quiet, you know -doesn’t go at all for the sort ofthing we’re preparing for him. “We’ll make it just as easy onhim as possible. We figure onroping off the square and buildinga big platform. It’ll be strictly a local celebration, not counting theband from Ashburn General Hos-pital over at McKinney. W. H.Jouett, cashier at the First Na-tional Bank, will have a few wordsto say and there’ll be other speak-ers.The program isn’t worked outyet.” Many of his relatives will be inthe crowd the day this communitycelebrates. His sister, Mrs. CorrineBurns of Farmersville, will bethere and his brother, Joe Preston,

ing because they couldn’t deflect theirguns low enough to fire at us.

I fired my bazooka at them eighttimes before I scored a hit in the ammu-nition dump. Explosions and fire brokeout all over, scaring the Germans andcausing the installation—about 150men— to surrender.

Later, while we were searching thehouses of Montelimar, several of us en-tered a big mansion that must have beenNazi headquarters. The place appearedto be empty, but we weren’t taking anychances.

I found one room with a closed door,readied my Tommy gun and pushed thedoor open. Across the room stood some-one with a Tommy gun pointed at me. Ifired — and shot the hell out of a full-length mirror. The fellows kidded me alot about a Texan beating himself to thedraw after that.

We drove on to near Vesoul. It wasSept. 15, 1944. We were marching along

a road when we came upon a Germanroad block. The Krauts opened up. Amortar shell hit near me, killing two andwounding six men, including me. Butmy luck held out.

A fragment of shell struck my rightheel, tearing off the heel of my boot andcutting a deep gash across my heel andankle. It was only a slight wound, but Igot the Purple Heart and spent two weeksin evacuation and convalescent hospitalsbefore rejoining my outfit late in Sep-tember.

October 2, we were entrenched on ahill overlooking Cleurie. The Germanswere putting up a battle for that townand casualties had been heavy. We hadtaken off from the top of the hill so of-ten the fellows were thinking of apply-ing for flight pay. Each time we weredriven back.

Col. Mike Paulick, Col. Keith L.Ware and Capt. Paul G. Harris, our com-pany commander, several other men and

myself were on reconnaissance when aGerman machine gun opened up on usfrom the rear. The Krauts must havebeen asleep when we walked by, becausethey were between us and our lines whenthey started firing.

Two members of our patrol werewounded. The machine gun was only35 yards away. We dropped and crawledto cover. The only way we could everget out of there was to silence that gun,so I began working toward it.

When I was about 15 yards away Istood up so I could do the job right. Themachine gunner swung his weaponaround and fired. But the gun caught ina bush as it was turned, and the Krautmissed me. My luck was still good.

Meanwhile, I had thrown two handgrenades into the position. The grenadeskilled four Germans and wounded three.One short, fat Kraut lived through theexplosions. He jumped up and startedrunning toward our lines. He ran likeDonald Duck. Someone fired and downhe went.

For “destroying the position” I wasawarded the Silver Star.

That was some of the hardest fight-ing I ever saw. We were in the VosgesMountains. The ground was rough,rocky and wooded. You might go into apatch of woods with 30 men and comeout with only 15. It took us three daysto advance two and a half miles.

It wasn’t anything spectacular to thefolks back home — just constant fight-ing for each inch of ground. But the footsoldiers who did it will never forget it.

Three days later we had advancedonly two and a half miles beyondCleurie, France, in the Vosges Moun-tains. We came upon our first experi-ence with a change of tactics institutedby the Germans. A machine gun instal-lation was dug into a ditch on the down-ward slope of a hill, instead of on theupward slope as they usually had been.

The machine gunners didn’t see usand we were pretty close to them whena sniper spotted us. He hit the man be-hind me in the chest. He screamed anddropped the ammunition he was carry-

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Audie Murphy Research FoundationAudie’s sister Corinne Burns welcomes him home to Farmersville — June 15, 1945

Home Front Is Tougher ThanWar for Bashful Texas Hero

BY WILLIAM C. BARNARD FARMERSVILLE, JUNE 15 (AP).Lt. Audie Murphy, one of the twomost decorated men in the U. S.Army, Friday was convinced thatwartime life in the United Statesis as rough as a jeep with squarewheels. The biggest ax hanging over thewavy-haired head of the 20-year-old “one-man army” was the factthat he stars Friday at his ownhomecoming. To the bashful littleofficer, this prospect was about asenjoyable as bobbing for applesin boiling oil. “I’m as shaking as Hirohito’sdreams,” he declared. These things happened to Mur-phy: 1. His new shoes don’t fit so heinnocently decided to purchase alarger pair in Dallas. He was toldhe would need a shoe stamp. Mur-phy thought a shoe stamp wassomething that stamped out shoes.He is still wearing that tight pair. 2. He saw his first gasoline cou-pon and realized with suddenshock that money, indeed, isn’teverything. He postponed plansfor purchasing an automobile. 3. He wanted to buy a small canof meat. He was told he wouldneed red points. So he had to becontent with a can of chickena la king. He spilled a gob of a laking on his trousers and every oneof his 728 freckles paled as hestated: “If it takes points for pants,I’m a gone goose.” 4. Shortly after he arrived hereThursday from San Antonio, hissister, Mrs. Corrine Burns ofFarmersville said: “CongressionalMedal of Honor or no, I’m stillthe boss.”

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-News Staff Photo. Lt. Audie Murphy, 20, this war’s most decorated infantryman, sits tensely at the ceremony givenhim in Farmersville Friday. Beside him is Col. James B. Anderson, commanding officer of AshburnGeneral Hospital, McKinney. Behind him (left) is Baptist Preacher L. A. West, pioneer. At theright is Banker W. H. Jouett.

ing. That alerted the machine gunnersand they hit six or seven of my 27 menbefore we could drop to the ground.

It was rainy and dark, and the Krautswere camouflaged and hard to locate. SoI grabbed a 536 radio and began crawl-ing to find a spot where I could directartillery fire at the position.

I kept so low I must have dug a ditchdown the side of the hill. I was cold andwet and scared and my teeth chatteredso loud I was afraid I’d give myself away.I must have crawled 50 yards before Idecided I could direct the artillery O.K.I called for 4.2 mortar fire, and it came.

For an hour I lay there wishing I wasa mole. Rifle and machine gun bulletshit as close as a foot from me, but theNazis couldn’t quite get me.

Finally the opposition stopped. Ididn’t count the damage personally, butofficial records say the artillery fire hadkilled 15 Germans and inflicted 35 othercasualties.

“Courage, audacity and accuracy,”the officer said before giving me an OakLeaf Cluster to the Silver Star I had wononly three days before. As far as I wasconcerned, it was just that I wanted toget back to Texas as soon as possible.

A few days later I was called backto my regiment. There I was discharged

from the army — a civilian for threewhole hours — then commissioned asecond lieutenant (but still a civilian atheart). I had no time to worry aboutuniforms, even if they had been avail-able, for I was rushed back to my pla-toon.

Oct. 26 we were advancing towardSt. Die. My radio operator had been

killed and I was directing my platoon byhand as we went up a hill. A sniper spot-ted me and shot. The bullet hit me inthe right hip. I fell and rolled into a ditch.The wound didn’t hurt. It just made memad. My helmet had fallen off before Irolled into the ditch and the sniper keptfiring bullets into it. I was glad I wasn’twearing it.

Farmersville, TX — June 15, 1945 Audie Murphy Research Foundation

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Audie Murphy Research Foundation

Lt. Audie Murphy Forced to FallBack As Bobby Soxers Charge GREENVILLE, June 28 (AP) -Lt. Audie Murphy Thursday couldsympathize with Frank Sinatra. The 21-year-old officer, whoholds every U. S. Army combatdecoration, was mobbed by a good-natured crowed of bobby soxersafter an appearance here Wednesday. One girl emerged from thetight crowd crying “I got it, I gotit.” She opened a copy of “For-ever Amber” and there was theLieutenant’s name on the flyleaf. Mary Lee of Floyd, a studentat the East Texas State TeachersCollege, Commerce, and Murphy’sgirl friend, stood on the fringe ofthe crowd and said, smiling: “Isure do have rivals.” Eventually state police madetheir way to the youthful hero andescorted him to an automobile. Alittle later, with the help of statepolice and the chamber of Com-merce, Mary Lee also got to thecar and climbed in. The mob scene occurred after Murphy,a former resident of Greenville and a na-tive of Hunt County, told an audience ofthousands that “it’s really great to be backamong a real and sincere people again.” The lieutenant was guest at aRotary luncheon, then rode in aparade down Greenville’s flag-be-decked Main Street. The Chamber

of Commerce estimated the crowdat more than 10,000. At a meeting on the courthousesteps after the parade, W. C. PooleJr., of the Greenville MorningHerald, commander of the Ameri-can Legion, presented Murphywith a check for $1,000, contribut-ed by citizens of Greenville.

great.At that time our outfit was under the

command of the First French Army inthe Colmar sector. The Germans wereputting up the stiffest resistance we hadrun into. We attacked Holtzwihr for threedays without gaining an inch.

We had started the siege with 90 menand six officers. By the morning of Jan.26, I was the only officer remaining, andthe enlisted men numbered about 32.

I was placed in command of thecompany by orders received over a fieldtelephone, and began organizing the fel-lows to attack Holtzwihr.

The snow was knee deep and wewere miserable and cold. I had my menmark time and keep moving to keep theirfeet from freezing while we awaited am-munition and orders to attack. Neitherarrived. At 10 a.m. the Krauts attacked.

Six tanks moved toward us from thedirection of Holtzwihr. They were sup-ported by about 250 infantrymen.

I knew we couldn’t hold our posi-tion against that opposition because ca-sualties were high and our two tank de-stroyers had been knocked out. So I or-dered my men to go back 500 to 600yards to take cover and prepare to makea stand.

I ordered my platoon to go on underthe command of a sergeant, and lay therewaiting for aid. Finally, Capt. Paul G.Harris, commander of the company, wholater was killed, found me and took meback to an aid station.

The bullet had torn away a lot of hipmuscle. As the shock wore off, the painbecame intense and I blacked out. WhenI came to in an evacuation hospital I wastold infection had developed and it hadbeen necessary to cut away a lot of myhip. Then I was removed to a generalhospital and given penicllin 18 days. Thepenicillin apparently fixed my hip, but Isure hated those injections.

I still walk with a slight limp fromthat wound, but army physicians havetold me it will clear up eventually. Theinjury added an Oak Leaf cluster to myPurple Heart.

If you wonder how much good thearmy nurse corps is doing, your worriesare over. They worked harder than any-one else over there — on the job all hoursof the day and night and always eagerto keep the patients comfortable and

happy. I still write to two nurses in Eu-rope who were so good to me while I waswounded.

I spent last Christmas in a convales-cent hospital and rejoined my regimentlate in January, after three months of ly-ing around. My hip had healed and I felt

James Laughead Photography

The sweetest and roughest kid in this war - Lt. AudieMurphy, Farmerville’s freckled fighter with every decorationin the books - had himself a time in Dallas Thursday. The 21-year-old boy (by one day) holder of the CongressionalMedal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Le-gion of Merit, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Presidential Ci-tation, told it on himself at the Salesmanship Club. “I’m a little late - and I apologize. I stepped into a bar-bershop and by golly, they had women barbers. I told herI wanted a shave and she just looked at me and said: “ ‘Are you kidding’?’ ” “I told her I had been shaving for two years and she said: “ ‘Yeah, and I bet you cut yourself both times!’ ” The lieutenant grinned and admitted that he really had toshave “about once a week.”

Roughest Kid In War Gets Nicked ByWoman Barber in Dallas Shop

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Audie Murphy Research Foundation

Genial Col. James B. Anderson, com-manding officer of the 2,500-bed hospital,welcomed him. The look on the faces of themen he got to see showed their appreciationtoo. Down the broad, quarter-mile-long hall-ways that connect the more than 100 yellowbrick buildings, Lieutenant Murphy walkedwith Colonel Anderson. In the passagewayshe met convalescent veterans of theEuropean and Pacific operations. They had replaced their uniforms, cam-paign ribbons and decorations with maroonrobes. But to many of them the star-studdedribbons for action in Africa, Sicily, Italy andFrance which Lieuteant Murphy wore werecommon property. And these wounded men can appreciatemost the Congressional Medal of Honor, theDistinguished Service Cross, the Silver Starand Cluster, the Bronze Star and theLegion of Merit he wore. Over his left shoul-der was looped the Fourragere, aFrench unit citation. As he walked down the polished hallLieutenant Murphy spoke a friendly greet-ing to each man he met. To a moustachedcorporal the young officer called “Hello,friend.”Feels More at Home. Inside the crowded fountain room of thehospital post exchange the loudconverstation of GIs rose to a noisy pitch.Lieutenant Murphy, who shared the spotlightwith thirteen Generals at San Antonio lastWednesday was given a ceremony of his ownat Farmersville Friday, has taken his honorsuneasily. But at Ashburn Hospital he wasrelaxed. “I could talk to hundreds of soldiers allday long,” he grinned. “But I just didn’tknow what to say to all those civilians.”

Modest Hero Relaxes Among WoundedBY LOIS SAGER,

Staff Correspondent of the News. McKINNEY, Texas, June 19.- Lt.Audie Murphy, freckled-face Farm-ersville hero, came to AshburnGeneral Hospital Tuesday to visitsome of the men he thinks the mostof-the other soldiers wounded inthis war.

It was one of the first things hewanted to do. Thinking of the other fellowcomes natural to this 20-year-old infantryman. Citations he holdsfor actions that saved the lives of3d Division men in his 15th Regi-ment prove that. Lieutenant Murphy was wounded

in three actions in France with theSeventh Army - Veuxaulle, St. Dieand Holtzwihr. An attack of malaria at Anzio, Italy, set him tothe hospital there. His more thanfour months in evacuation and gen-eral hospitals overseas left himknowing what a break in the rou-tine of long hours in bed means.

I was scared. I didn’t think there wasa chance of my getting out of there alive,but for some reason I didn’t give a damn.

I had a field telephone to use to di-rect artillery fire. I’d leave it in a hole,crawl out to see where the Krauts were,and every time the phone rang before Icould get a bearing.

“Where are they now?” a liaison of-ficer would ask.

Finally I was disgusted.“Wait a minute,” I told him, “and

I’ll let you talk to them.”One of our tank destroyers was not

far from me. It was burning and therewas danger that the gasoline and ammu-nition would explode any minute. Butthe Germans were getting so close therewas only one thing to do to give my mentime to get set.

I climbed onto the tank turret. Ipushed aside the bodies of a lieutenant

and his gunner who had been killed whenthe tank was hit, and began firing the ma-chine gun.

I was pretty well hidden by the tur-ret. The flames made it hot, but that feltgood after being cold for so long. I hada good supply of ammunition and keptfiring. I was scared but too busy toworry.

The Nazis must have been poormarksmen. They hit the tank only twice.I didn’t know it until later but severalshell fragments from one of the hitsstruck me in the back of my leg abovethe knee.

I had the field telephone with me,and for some reason it was still operat-ing. A sergeant called me from the po-sition my men had taken.

“Are you still alive, lieutenant?” heasked.

“Momentarily, sergeant,” I replied.

“What are your postwar plans?” I didn’t get to his plans because just

then the phone was knocked out.By that time the artillery was going

good. Most of the German infantrymenhad been killed or wounded, and thetanks began to fall back.

I had been on the tank turret for anhour, and my ammunition was gone. SoI dropped over the side and sat down inthe snow. I was puzzled: How come I’mnot dead?

After a few minutes of wondering Ireturned to my company and began re-organizing it for an attack. We succeededin clearing the woods and taking the po-sition.

While we were pausing for breath, Idiscovered the leg wound.

“Well, another Purple Heart Clus-ter,” I thought on the way back to havethe leg treated. One fragment is still in

8

Hero Audie MurphyArrives In Hollywood

____ Hollywood-Reticent freckled-faced and hopeful, hero Audie L.Murphy, 20 year old Army Lieu-tenant from Farmersville, Texas,arrived Friday night in the filmcapital where, with Actor Jim-my Cagneys’ aid, he hopes tocrash the fickel gates of film-dom. Murphy, holder of the Medal of Honor, and practically everyother American decoration forvalor, stepped from an airlinerto be greeted by Cagney, inwhose home he’ll be a guestwhile here.

Audie Murphy leaves Love Field, Dallas for Hollywood — September 20, 1945Audie Murphy Research Foundation

sleep and see my friends for the next 30days. I have a lot of public appearancesscheduled, but I don’t mind if I think I’mreally helping someone. Just so I getsome time to do what I want to do be-fore reporting at Fort Sam Houston, Tex.,Aug. 15.

I don’t know what I’ll do then. Ihave 146 points toward a discharge, butif the army has something for me to dothat will help them, the army comes first.I won’t be sent into combat again unlessI request it. And I won’t.

I’m not a fighting man. From hereon, I want to like everybody.

Audie MurphyJuly, 1945

my leg, but it doesn’t bother me. As soonas it was treated I returned to action.

For merely performing my duty onmy first day as company commander, Ireceived the Congressional Medal ofHonor.

Guys who watched the fight say Ikilled or wounded at least 100 Krauts,some of them after they had come within10 yards of the tank.

I still don’t know how the Krautsmissed me.

After we had taken Holtzwihr andmoved across the Rhine, we were re-lieved by French troops and sent backfor training to crack the Siegfried Line.

I never returned to combat. I do notwant to.

When I was recommended for theCongressional Medal of Honor, I waswithdrawn from my outfit and made aliaison officer behind the lines. Therewere times when that was worse thanfighting.

Feb. 22, I was promoted to first lieu-tenant.

On the day of the German surrenderI was on the way to Cannes for a rest onthe Riviera. June 2, I returned toSalzburg, Austria, where I received theCongressional Medal and the Legion ofMerit.

Lieut. Gen. Alexander M. Patch,Seventh Army commander, presentedthe awards.

“I wonder if you are as nervous as Iam,” General Patch asked as he pinnedon the medals.

“I’m afraid I’m more so, sir,” I re-plied, and he laughed.

The Legion of Merit award wasbased on “exceptionally meritoriousconduct” and “outstanding services” inFrance and Italy, from Jan. 22, 1944 toFeb. 18, 1945, they told me.

“Lieutenant Murphy’s personalbravery,” the general continued, “his skillin imparting his own knowledge of en-emy tactics to his men, and his volun-tary assumption of hazardous patrols andmissions have benefited his unit to animmeasurable degree.”

That makes me sound like Super-man, but there are a lot of things thatcan make a man brave. Wanting to goback to Texas, lack of sleep, anger, dis-gust, discomfort and hate — those thingswon me my medals, and they’ve wonmany other medals for many other guys.

June 10, I left Paris by plane, andJune 14, I reached San Antonio. Theygave us a great reception there, and therewas another big one in Farmersville thenext day. I’ve been to many dinners, re-ceptions, military reviews and otherevents since then.

I’ve even had a birthday since I gothome. That was June 20. Now I’m oldenough to vote.

All I want to do is loaf and fish and

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

“By The Dawn’s Early Light”By Richard S. Krause

I am pleased to report that your contributions have made it possiblefor us to publish our second quarterly newsletter on time. Special thanks tothose who signed on as monthly sponsors. We are now a quarter of the waytoward achieving our monthly sponsorship goal of $1,000. This sponsor-ship is of critical importance in allowing us to continue this research,because without it, we could not cover the regular costs of postage, copy-ing, photographic reproductions, long distance telephone calls and all theother necessary expenses.

The Foundation has been very successful in obtaining movie memo-rabilia. We now have posters, lobby cards or stills from every movie inwhich Audie Murphy appeared. Eva Dano is currently designing a CDROM of these materials, which we will soon be making available.

In addition, several artists have generously donated portraits to theFoundation. Artist Richard Krause is doing a series of splendid oil paint-ings, the first of which — “Just Another Nightwatch” — was unveiledduring the Greenville Audie Murphy Day Celebration and is currently ondisplay at the American Cotton Museum in Greenville, TX. Mr. Krausehas just completed the second in the series: “By The Dawn’s Early Light.”

We have received so many requests from readers who are interestedin acquiring collectable items relating to Audie Murphy, that we have begunputting together a catalog through which such items can be can purchased.

If you would like to receive a catalog, please fill out the returnenvelope flap and check the appropriate box.

Larryann Willis

SSSSSpecial pecial pecial pecial pecial Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks Thanks TTTTTo:o:o:o:o:

for sponsoring the internet address dedicated exclusively to theAudie L. Murphy Memorial Website

www.audiemurphy.com

DashlinkPO Box 11029; Killeen, TX 76547; info@dashlink.com

A NON-PROFIT PUBLIC BENEFIT CORPORATION

PresidentTerry M. Murphy

Vice PresidentChris J. Glazier

Executive DirectorLarryann C. Willis, Esq.

PO BOX 1804Orinda, CA 94563

Toll Free Phone (888) 314-AMRFFax: (925) 253-0504Email: Audiemurphy@juno.com

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