Tonight while trying to research legitimate charities, I wound up at the FBI web site in the Freedom Of Information Act area. It was exceptionally slow to load, so I didn’t really wait for most of the stuff to download, but I did see a name that struck me as out of place - Audy Murphy.

Now for those youngsters reading this Audy Murphy was the most decorated hero of WWII and even a recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor. Truly a man to admire and who gave above and beyond the call of duty to his country.

Imagine my suprise when the FBI synopsis of him read as follows:

“Audie Leon Murphy was born June 20, 1924, in Kingston, Texas. Audie was an actor and a Hollywood producer. During World War II, he served in the United States Army and was decorated with many honors. Murphy was also in the United States Army Reserves on “standby” status. Before achieving his stardom status, he was a sharecropper, a clerk and a gas station attendant. Murphy was appointed to the State Board of Examiners in Veterinary Medicine by Governor Edmund G. Brown. On his farm, Murphy raised quarter horses and cattle. He later sold his farm to Bob Hope. Murphy died in an airplane crash on May 29, 1971, near Roanoke, Virginia.”

Although I am rather suprised that the FBI felt a need to keep tabs on this patriot, what I find appalling is the way they summed up his life. No mention of the CMH, or the fact that his true claim to fame was not acting or farming - but the that he was an outstanding soildier and patriot.

Really, the Congressional Medal of Honor is so rarely awarded that nothing he did before or after could possibly mean more in the eyes of of US citizens. Except perhaps his own, since heros rarely view themselves as such.