From the Snyder (Texas) Daily News
A Snyder High School graduate has been killed while on active duty in Afghanistan.
U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Chance Murphrey was a member of the graduating class of 2003 and reportedly died in combat Sunday. He was an all-district defensive end for the Tiger football team and competed in hurdles for the track team. He served as the escort for the boys track
team queen and helped the football team earn a playoff berth his senior
year. He began attending Snyder schools while in junior high.
Tiger head coach Chad Rogers remembers Murphrey as a good student.
“He was an outstanding young man. He worked hard and looked out for others,”
Rogers said. “He always had a smile on his face, a good kid. This is a tragic loss.”
After graduation in May, Murphrey left for boot camp in September. He and
his wife, Ashley, were married in April 2005 and have two children, a
four-year-old boy and a 10-month-old daughter. Ashley and the children are
with her parents in Colorado.
Murphrey was on his third tour of a war zone, according to his sister Jeanie
Rutherford. The first two were in Iraq. He was assigned to 501st Airborne in
Fort Richardson, Alaska. He had earned six medals of valor during his tours.
His parents moved from Snyder and now live in Clyde.
His parents were leaving their home this morning to meet with Army officials
and were unavailable for comment. Richardson said the family was told
that the sergeant was on patrol and stepped on a pressurized plate that set off an improvised explosive device.
The military said it would release information as soon as word of notification
of next-of-kin is received through military channels. His body will first be
flown to Dover Air Base in Delaware and then to Dyess Air Force Base in
Abilene.
Services for Murphrey are pending at Bailey Funeral Home in Clyde.
8 comments:
Hi, I am a freelance newspaper reporter and columnist in Texas. I am writing an article involving this fallen hero. Do you by any chance have a photo of SSG Michael Murphrey I could use in the article? It breaks my heart to see these great heroes taken from their families, and he was so young.
You can see samples of the columns I write at http://aboutlife.weebly.com.
You can use any picture that is on the website, if that's OK.
Thanks for asking.
Mark
He was a wonderful person with a wonderful future. His hometown of Clyde showed great pride in their fallen hero everyone in town lined the streets to the cemetary showing their support fot this great warrior of freedom. He will be greatly missed by all.
Richard,
Thanks. I wish we could have been there.
Mark is still shattered by Murph's death.
As a family, we owe him a great debt. He brought son home alive - twice.
Our prayers are with the families and friends.
I would like to thank everyone for the support, prayers, posting bloggs and pictures we have never seen. To Airbourne dad I would love contact or your son to thank him and to offer any support we can give him to help his hurting heart. We had a lot of guys that came to visit from Ft. Bragg the stories they told were great!!
Thanks, Wendy.
Mark published another tribute today. Your brother is greatly missed. Prayers for your family.
We can be reached at threemms@gmail.com
im his daughter years later
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