Murph: The Protector Page #7

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And he says,

"He's just missing."

She wasn't falling apart

or anything,

because we weren't giving her

much information.

She was trying

to get more from us.

But Father Coyle was there,

kind of settled us all down.

And he said a prayer.

And we all joined in.

Maureen calls me right away.

I live just down the block.

So she calls me and she says,

"The Navy is here, Dan.

Michael is missing."

You're creating these images of,

you know, if he's alive now,

where is he?

Is he captured?

Is he on the run?

It's like really painful

when you don't know

what happened to your child.

Even though he's a grown man,

but he's still your child.

And you don't know if he's maybe

hiding behind a rock

and bleeding to death

or maybe they're torturing him

or doing something,

you know, horrible,

or maybe just

dying there by himself,

you know, maybe

in a cave or something,

if he was lucky enough

to get away.

And so I started asking,

you know, questions about,

what do we know, like,

what happened, et cetera, et cetera.

And they didn't have

a lot of information there.

He's missing?

What are you talking about?

So I leave work. I go. It was right

around the corner from his house.

And everybody's, you know...

and it wasn't confirmed yet.

But I just figured

there's no way he's gonna...

you know, the team is missing.

He's gonna pop up somewhere.

It's just how he was.

He's gonna find a way

to get out.

We try to reassure each other

that everything's gonna work out,

and these are the most elite,

trained military persons

we have in the country.

- Retreated to Maureen's house.

- We retreated to Maureen's house

- to see how she was doing and try...

- To do anything for her.

Provide any comfort and help

we could to her.

And Maureen said,

"Let's get these uniforms off.

It's stressing me out

too much."

So we came over

in regular clothes the next day.

It starts off small and ends up

to be like... like a lot more.

There was probably

30, 40 people at...

you know, at some points

just waiting for news.

There were points

during those four days

that we were able to laugh

and we shared margaritas

and we had some beers.

And we held onto some hope

that we got,

that sprinkled in

from some of the reports.

My house was filled with, like,

a hundred people at a clip,

between people coming and going.

And they were really kind.

They brought all kinds of food.

Even neighbors

I didn't even really know

had brought all kinds of food

and everything,

'cause there was just

so much going on.

And so for six days

he was missing.

But the rest of the time

was difficult, you know.

We passed the time

with small talk.

And the news was on constantly

in the background.

And anytime

anything would come up,

we'd stop what we were doing

and listen.

And it was excruciating.

You know, I said, "Maureen,

he knows what he's doing.

He's great at this.

He's a smart guy," you know.

She said, "But he's not gonna

get hurt on his own.

He's gonna get hurt

trying to protect somebody."

It was a couple of minutes just

before the end of the Fourth of July.

And we got the news

that Michael didn't make it.

And I went into total shock,

'cause I was, like, looking,

and everybody's crying.

And my body just shut down.

I just was like...

all I could think of is,

he's not in pain anymore

and that he's in heaven

and...

all the pain that he probably

did suffer is gone.

And I don't know,

I just got this numb feeling.

And I just was telling people

he's okay, you know,

and not to be upset.

I don't know.

Well, when he showed up

that night in his whites,

because this was formal,

Dan was walking around his back yard.

And I saw him turn to Jeff

and say,

"I don't want to talk to you."

And I heard Mr. Murphy,

I heard him yell a few times

he didn't want to talk to Jeff.

"Keep Jeff away.

I don't want to see him."

Dan had rosaries

that he held for five days

while Mike was missing.

And I had come to find out

during the course of those five days

that those rosaries

had belonged to my mother.

And when my brother Dan

was hurt in Vietnam,

my mother held onto those rosaries

until she knew he was okay.

So for five days

Dan held those rosaries.

He started to walk into his house, and

there was a garbage can to his right.

And he took the rosary beads

and he just threw them in the garbage

and kept walking.

While conducting surveillance

on a mountain ridge in Afghanistan,

he and three fellow SEALs

were surrounded

by a much larger enemy force.

Their only escape

was down the side of a mountain.

And the SEALs launched

a valiant counterattack

while cascading

from cliff to cliff.

But as the enemy closed in,

Michael recognized

that the survival of his men

depended on calling back

to the base for reinforcements.

With complete disregard

for his own life,

he moved into a clearing

where his phone would get reception.

He made the call,

and Michael then

fell under heavy fire.

Yet his grace and upbringing

never deserted him.

Though severely wounded,

he said, "Thank you,"

before hanging up

and returned to the fight

before losing his life.

Unfortunately, the helicopter

carrying the reinforcements

never reached the scene.

It crashed after being struck

by a rocket-propelled grenade.

And in the end more Americans

died in Afghanistan

on June 28th, 2005,

than on any other day

since the beginning

of Operation Enduring Freedom.

This day of tragedy

also has the sad distinction

of being the deadliest

for Navy Special Warfare Forces

since World War II.

One of Michael's fellow SEALs

did make it off the mountain ridge.

He was one of Michael's

closest friends,

Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell

of Texas,

author of a riveting book

called "Lone Survivor."

"Put it this way...

Mikey was the best officer I ever knew.

An iron-souled warrior

of colossal and almost unbelievable

courage in the face of the enemy."

When I was told about it,

that Michael's final words were,

"Thank you, sir,"

or, "Roger that. Thank you, sir,"

Maureen and I looked at each other,

we were not surprised.

Everything about Mike,

his whole life led up to that.

He, you know, led his whole life

with honor, so...

Yeah, I'm not surprised.

I mean, we knew it.

It was his sacrifice.

Leaving high school, I knew

that college was gonna be

a big issue financially.

I knew that if I wanted to go,

I would have to apply myself.

And wanting, you know...

having the desire to go

and having the grades to go

are one thing,

but there are very tangible things

that you must have

in order to continue that goal.

So in my senior year of high school,

I actually applied to 49 scholarships.

Yes. Knowing that,

I only received eight.

However, those eight

have been a blessing.

And those eight have been able

to sustain my entire college career.

The last time I saw Michael

was on Easter Sunday that year, 2005.

And, you know,

we were all set to say goodbye.

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