Named for heroic SEAL, warship heads for isles

BATH, Maine >> A Navy destroyer named after a Pearl Harbor-based SEAL killed in Afghanistan left a Bath shipyard Wednesday with sailors lining the deck in their white uniforms.

The 510-foot warship sailed from Bath Iron Works after a ceremony at the Maine Maritime Museum, traveling down the Kenne­bec River toward the open ocean. It will be commissioned on Oct. 6 in New York City before traveling to the Pacific Ocean, where its home will be Pearl Harbor.

The USS Michael Murphy is named for a Medal of Honor recipient from New York’s Long Island who led a four-member SEAL team against overwhelming odds in a gunbattle in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005.
Lt. Murphy, 29, of Patchogue, N.Y., was one of 19 U.S. military personnel killed in the Hindu Kush mountains of eastern Afghanistan — three in a firefight with the enemy and 16 on a helicopter shot down as it flew in to aid Murphy’s unit. Five of the SEALs killed, including Murphy, were with SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1, based at Pearl City Peninsula.

It began when a gunbattle erupted between a four-man SEAL team led by Murphy and 80 to 100 enemy fighters high in the remote mountains of Kunar province.

Intent on making contact with headquarters, Murphy, wounded and disregarding his own safety, moved into the open to get a better position to transmit a call for help for his men, the Navy said.
At one point he was shot in the back, causing him to drop the transmitter, but Murphy retrieved it, completed the call and continued firing on the enemy.

When it was over, 11 SEALs had been killed — the greatest loss for Naval Special Warfare since World War II — along with eight Army “Night Stalkers” assigned to the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment.

Variety reported last month that Mark Wahlberg, Taylor Kitsch and Ben Foster were set to star in a movie version of the Afghanistan battle called “Lone Survivor.”

The Peter Berg movie is based on the book by former Pearl Harbor SEAL Marcus Luttrell, who was part of Murphy’s small team when it was dropped high on a mountain and had to battle overwhelming odds. Kitsch (“Battleship,” “Friday Night Lights”) reportedly will play Murphy.

The USS Michael Murphy was originally commissioned on May 7, 2011, but went back into dry dock for additional work.