Murph: The Protector Page #3

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not so much in life, but in athletics.

And he would wear the same shirt

to play football in

without washing it.

That was him.

That's what he would do.

And he would say, "Well, if someone's

gonna have to tackle me,

they're gonna have to

get through the stink."

And so from that day forward,

he was known as Stinky

among our tight group of friends.

He really did love Penn State.

He had really good friends.

He had his home friends.

And everybody always

kept up with each other.

What more could you ask for?

He was happy.

I wasn't quite sure what his path was

gonna be when he went to Penn State,

but it was something

that was in his heart

and something

that he wanted to pursue.

And, you know,

I was very proud of him.

The kid was smarter

and more well-read

than anyone would ever know,

because it's not something

that he talked about or let on.

He was a prolific reader,

you know.

He read everything

that he could get his hands on.

But on his list of reading material

he said,

"Look, if you want to get me

something for Christmas,

there's this great book

I'd like called

"The Bear On the Other Side

of the Mountain,"

or "The Bear Over the Mountain."

We didn't put any stock...

it kind of... whew... over our heads.

Afterwards we find out,

"The Bear Over the Mountain"

was a story about the Russian

invasion into Afghanistan.

And it was almost like a clue

that we didn't pick up.

I thought he was gonna go

to law school, just because.

As far as we knew,

he was always gonna go to law school.

He had all these accolades,

the grades.

His dad's a lawyer.

That's what his dad wanted him to do.

And Mike, he had the grades.

To my knowledge, got into

U Penn Law School, Tennessee Law.

He didn't really,

like, talk about it much.

He started taking it to the next level.

He started training,

just because

he wanted to be in top shape

before he did it.

So clearly he was getting

prepared for something.

The SEALs... this is crazy,

you know.

It's like the elite of the elite.

And I didn't really, truly believe

that he was gonna do it.

Michael turns to me

and says, "Dad,"

he said, "you know,

we've been talking

about legal education and stuff,

but I've been looking

at the special operations branch,

specifically the Navy SEALs."

All of a sudden, he just said,

"I want to do this."

And I have to tell you,

I tried to talk him out of it and said,

"But you're really good with people.

You could be a good teacher."

And I looked at him

and I told him,

I said I'd disown him

if he joined the military.

And it was something like,

"Oh, you know,

it's really hard to get into,"

and all this.

And don't say that to Mike,

because when you say he can't do

something, he will just go for it.

Of course you don't wish that

for your eldest son...

to be put in harm's way.

SEALs are about team.

They always are. They're not about

individual accomplishment.

They're not about who...

who can score the most points

in a basketball game.

They're usually about the guy

that made the best passes

in a basketball game,

not the guy that dunked it.

It must have been

something he read about

and he liked the idea

of the work that they did

and he got it in his head.

And then it was one of those...

again, Michael becomes focused

and determined... "Oh, this is my path."

The first time I ever met Michael

was by phone

when he called me up

and asked me

if I would talk to him

about becoming a Navy SEAL.

I told Michael to come by on...

I believe it was a Saturday...

and I'd be happy

to talk to him about it.

When he met Mike, he said

there's certain guys

you tell right off the bat.

And he said,

"I was out there chopping wood

and Mike comes around the corner

and introduces himself

and says,

'Hi. I'm Mike Murphy."'

I was splitting wood

and said, "Who are you?"

And he said that,

"I'm Michael Murphy."

And I said, "Well, good for you.

I understand you'd like

to talk about SEAL Team."

And he looked at me

and said, "No, sir,

I want to be a SEAL."

He says, "I'm interested

in becoming a Navy SEAL."

And with that,

he's chopping wood,

he didn't even say anything

to Mike.

Mike took off his jacket,

rolled up his sleeves

and started helping him

chop the wood without even asking.

We talked about SEAL for some period of time

and my experiences in it

and what I thought it would take

for him to achieve that.

And he convinced me

that he absolutely should have

the opportunity to try,

which was...

it's not often that that happens

over a period of a singular...

single conversation.

If he hadn't come out

and helped split the wood,

our conversation

would have been very brief

after we got done.

But he didn't know that.

Two, three,

four...

You know, Mike would go upstate

to do fitness tests to qualify.

And every day at the beach

was a chance to train.

So he'd be doing sit-ups,

running, swimming,

whether it would be leave here

and go to the pool

to drown-proof himself

or to do sidestroke

or do sit-ups till he yakked

and then continued some more.

Oh, he literally

would do sit-ups till he puked.

He'd come up,

turn to his side, puke

and get mad at himself.

I was like, "What's wrong with you?"

- Then continue doing sit-ups.

- And then keep going, yeah.

And then he said something to me

which made me just say,

"You know what, Mike?

Go for it."

He said, "Mom, would you like me

to sit at a desk

and not be happy

for the next 30 years

or do you really...

would you be happy,

you know, that I'm doing

something that I really want?"

What can you say?

You just want what your kids...

if they're happy,

you're fine with it.

Even though it's dangerous work,

he was happy with it.

He loved it.

He'd do it all over again.

I know him.

He would do it all over again.

I went to Naval

Academy, graduated in 1997,

went right to flight school

from there.

I was down in Florida, San Diego,

and Virginia, flying the H-46.

I got to my squadron

right before September 11th,

about a year before.

So I did a full deployment

and then September 11th

happened,

and everybody was going out to sea

and deploying

and going to the Middle East

and that part of the world.

And I went two more times

during my tour, so I was going a lot.

So I was in Persian Gulf a whole lot

during that time.

After my flying tour,

I went to be stationed

at Kings Point

Merchant Marine Academy,

which is there in Kings Point,

New York, on Long Island.

So one of our extra duties

is to be available

to be casualty officers

for any families in the local area.

March!

Mike was from Long Island,

then went to Penn State University

and graduated there,

right after that went to OCS.

We go down to see him

graduate from Pensacola.

And I don't see him.

You know, we get down there,

we get down there late,

and they're marching onto the field.

Dan and I were catching a plane

to get down there,

but there was a big windstorm, so

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