Recently, I recommended a great book to you...and not only for you...but for every 'young American'...called Lone Survivor, by Marcus Luttrell with Patrick Robinson...

the story of a Navy Seal Team mission in Afghanistan...but it also covered 'their intense training and dedication to serving our nation'...as well as the author's faith...the 'rough but true faith of a warrior'...in actual combat...

Well...the leader of that mission this week has been honored posthumously with the Medal of Honor...

And I still recommend every young American read this book....

Bush honors Navy SEAL

by: Los Angeles Times
10/23/2007

Lt. Michael P. Murphy risked his life to send out a call for help.

WASHINGTON -- In a somber ceremony Monday in the White House East Room, President Bush awarded the Medal of Honor to a Navy SEAL mortally wounded two years ago on a hillside in Afghanistan after he sent out an emergency call for reinforcements and continued firing at Taliban insurgents.

The medal, given to Lt. Michael P. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., is the nation's highest military honor. This is the first one the president has bestowed for action in Afghanistan. Bush, who has awarded nine Medals of Honor, has given two for gallantry in Iraq.

"With this medal, we acknowledge a debt that will not diminish with time -- and can never be repaid," the president said, with the lieutenant's parents, Daniel and Maureen Murphy, seated in front of him in an audience made up of family members, members of Congress and senior White House and Pentagon officials.

The story of Murphy's sacrifice, Bush said, "humbles and inspires all who hear it."

Murphy and the others in his four-member team were conducting surveillance in a rugged part of Konar province on June 28, 2005, when anticoalition militia sympathizers discovered them and reported their position to Taliban fighters, according to the citation that accompanied the medal. Some 30 to 40 insurgents besieged them.

"Their only escape was down the side of a mountain -- and the SEALs launched a valiant counterattack while cascading from cliff to cliff," Bush said.

With the enemy closing in, the president said, reading quickly through his remarks, Murphy tried to call for reinforcements. "With complete disregard for his own life, he moved into a clearing where his phone would get reception," Bush added.

That move -- "a deliberate heroic act," the president said -- exposed Murphy to enemy fire. He completed the call, remaining composed enough to end it by saying, "Thank you," the president said, and continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded.

June 28 was a brutal day for American forces in Afghanistan and for the Navy SEALs, a special warfare unit whose name comes from its ability to fight on sea, in the air and on land. It was the deadliest day for Navy special warfare forces since World War II, Bush noted, and produced more American casualties than any day in Afghanistan since the war began there in 2001.

Only one of the SEALs on Murphy's team survived. Eight other SEALs and eight soldiers were killed when the MH-47 Chinook helicopter sent to rescue the team was brought down by a rocket-propelled grenade.