SEAL of Honor (6 page)

Dan cried, “No, you can’t do that. We do not want our son’s picture on the floor.”

The cameraman apologized and said he meant no disrespect, but it was necessary to get a good picture. He continued to attempt a picture and Dan quickly picked the picture up off the floor.

“I don’t care; you are not putting our son’s picture on the floor.” He placed it back on the shelf, much to Maureen’s comfort.

Dan informed Lieutenant Commander Muse that he wanted Michael brought to New York as soon as possible, as he did not want his son left alone in a mortuary. Later that afternoon, the Murphys met with Eddie McElhone. Compassionately, Eddie explained the service and burial arrangements. The family refused the Navy’s offer for Michael to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery and decided to bury him in Calverton National Cemetery, about fifteen miles from Patchogue. They accepted the Navy’s offer for full military honors.

Early in the morning, a motorcade consisting of a hearse, a limousine that carried Dan, Maureen, and John, along with John and Linda McElhone, and a Westbury police cruiser driven by Dan Duggan and carrying his wife, Lynda, and Heather left for Dover. The motorcade arrived just before 9:00 AM at the Charles C. Carson Center for Mortuary Affairs. The combined military honor guard solemnly placed Michael’s flag-draped gray steel casket into the hearse, and two cruisers from the Delaware State Patrol provided an escort to the New Jersey state line. Dan rode in the hearse and kept his hand on the casket throughout the trip and talked to Michael, telling him that he was on his way home and describing the scenery as they passed.

At the state line, two New Jersey State Patrol cruisers assumed the escort and led the motorcade to the New York state line. In New York, authorities had closed the Belt Parkway to the Nassau County line, with a uniformed New York City motorcycle police officer positioned at each entrance to the parkway. As the hearse approached, each officer snapped to attention and saluted, holding the salute until the motorcade had passed. Dan and Maureen were unable to control their emotions. They were in awe of the fact that total strangers would have so much respect for their son. Dan tried to describe the scene to Michael, but was unable to do so through his tears. At the Nassau County line, six cruisers from the Nassau County Police Department escorted them to the Suffolk County line into Kings Park, where additional local police cruisers joined the escort. As they waited outside the funeral home, Eddie McElhone and a Navy honor guard from the Naval Operational Support Center in Plainville, Connecticut, heard the sirens even though the motorcade was still several miles away.

After the hearse backed into position, Michael’s casket, with three members of the honor guard at each end, was carried through the front doors and placed on a church truck. From there it was wheeled into Chapel C, and the double-wide white doors were closed. The casket was taken to the front of the chapel, where the honor guard centered it on the bier. Members of the honor guard then faced the casket, saluted, and retired. Eddie then quickly prepared the room by placing a red lighted votive candle at each end of the casket and next to each votive a taller lighted torchère. He then centered the brass Resurrection Cross behind the flag-draped casket and escorted the family in from a nearby room.

As the family approached the casket and knelt at the prayer rail, Eddie walked slowly to the back of the room. After several minutes, Dan and Maureen stepped back and sat in the center of the front row, along with John. They couldn’t help feeling the unfairness of it all. Michael’s death violated the natural order of life. Children bury their parents. Parents should not have to bury their children.

After about ten minutes, the Duggan family was escorted into the chapel. They also knelt and prayed. After several minutes at the prayer rail, they joined the Murphys in the front row. The chapel was quiet, except for the sound of soft cries and sobs of parents and family.

Afterward, Dan pulled Eddie aside and asked to view Michael’s remains. Even though Dan was a longtime homicide prosecutor, Eddie was strongly against it. Maureen then asked that Michael’s beard, grown for the Afghanistan mission, be shaved before viewing. Delicately, McElhone explained that because of the manner in which Michael died, coupled with the time it took to recover his remains, he could not be viewed. He further explained that Michael had been tightly shrouded and his uniform pinned to the shroud. Undeterred, Heather asked that the wedding ring she had bought for Michael be placed on his hand. Reluctantly, McElhone agreed, which renewed Dan’s desire to view Michael, or at least hold his hand before he was buried. Eddie again explained that he was strongly against this, and Dan finally relented.

When the family left the funeral home, they were met by a large crowd of people waving flags in the parking lot. Several called out words of sympathy and support, many politely applauded, and some just stood in solemn reverence. Dan and Maureen nodded and acknowledged them while they walked toward the waiting limousine.

After the family left, the members of the honor guard took their positions at each end of the flag-draped casket, where they remained until the funeral.

CHAPTER THREE

—MAJOR STEVE BECK, Casualty Assistance Calls Officer (CACO), United States Marine Corps, quoted in Jim Sheeler,
Final Salute

T
he Navy quickly arranged to bring in Michael’s SDVT-1 from Pearl City, Hawaii. Dan agreed to a request from V. Anthony Maggipinto, a lawyer colleague and a retired petty officer second class, to assist in the celebration of the Mass. Maggipinto served as the judge advocate for the Long Island Navy League and as a deacon at the St. Philip and James Catholic Church in St. James, New York.

By now it had become clear that Michael’s funeral had captured the attention of the Navy at the highest levels. The family had been informed that several flag officers (admirals) would be attending Michael’s funeral, including Rear Admiral Joseph Maguire, the commander of Naval Special Warfare. Part of the funeral arrangements included the selection of the Navy officer who would present Maureen with Michael’s burial flag. Lieutenant Jeff Widenhofer explained the usual
protocol, but Maureen insisted that Captain Andrew Bisset present Michael’s flag, and she also requested that Michael’s fiancée, Heather, also receive a flag.

To ensure that her wishes were honored, Maureen called Bisset and asked him to present the flag. This task was not new to Bisset, as he had performed this function at an increasing number of funerals for World War II and Korean War veterans throughout the New England region. He was humbled by Maureen’s call because he felt guilt-ridden, having trained and recommended Michael for the very service that ultimately cost him his life. He knew that this would be the most difficult assignment of his career.

Back at the funeral home, floral arrangements surrounded the base of the ivory bier as the U.S. Navy honor guard remained motionless at each end of the casket. A full-length tripod with a large picture of Michael greeted visitors as they entered the chapel. Although the family had requested memorials be made to the scholarship fund newly established in Michael’s memory, dozens of floral displays were delivered during the day that extended the length of the room on both sides, while additional arrangements were set in the hallway as well as an adjacent room that had been set up for additional seating.
¹

The first of four separate visitations was scheduled to begin at 2:00 PM, but the line of those who waited to pay their respects began forming outside the Clayton Funeral Home by midmorning. By the time the doors opened, the line had woven its way through the rows of parked cars in the parking lot, along the sidewalk, around the front of the parking lot, and nearly two blocks north. Local law enforcement officials assisted with traffic, while a group of forty to fifty veterans on motorcycles, known as the Patriot Guard, lined the parking lot with large U.S. flags.

Two separate receiving lines were established, the first for members of the general public and the second for members of the immediate family and the military. The large military contingent that arrived was made up of active-duty, reserve, and retired SEALs and sailors, along with both active-duty and retired members of each of the other service branches and the Merchant Marine Academy. Because Dan had been the Suffolk County prosecutor, a large number of court officers, judges, and attorneys arrived, as well as local, state, and national political leaders, to honor the life and sacrifice of Lieutenant Murphy. For three hours, the Murphys received a continuous line of mourners.

When visitation resumed at 7:00 PM, many of Michael’s fellow SDVT-1 teammates, led by Lieutenant Commander Mike Marshall, arrived from Pearl City, Hawaii. Among them was Lieutenant Andy Haffele, who gave Dan a heartfelt letter he had written. The SEALs brought with them Michael’s uniforms, pictures, and other SEAL mementos, which were displayed near the front of the room on several linendraped tables. A large SEAL contingent from the Naval Amphibious Base, Little Creek, Virginia, also arrived, as well as Rear Admiral Joseph Maguire, the commander of Naval Special Warfare, and Rear Admiral Joseph D. Kernan, the deputy commander of NSW. During Maguire’s short conversation with Dan, he leaned over and said, “Mr. Murphy, I just wanted you to know that I don’t think that your son and his men went down easy, because there were Taliban bodies strewn all over the place, eighty-some causalities, blood trails everywhere. This was a pitched battle and they did not go down easy.” Although he did not immediately realize the importance of his words at the time, he was extremely proud that Michael had not given up the fight, taking it to the enemy with his last breath—warrior’s death, a hero’s death.

Representatives from the New York fire and police departments soon arrived, including Engine Co. 53, Ladder Co. 43. As an officer, Michael had chosen Ladder Co. 43, “El Barrio’s Bravest,” as the symbol of his team. Even though the visitation was scheduled to end at 9:00 PM, the family remained until 10:30 PM and received nearly two thousand mourners. Although exhausted, they were humbled and honored by the unexpected large crowd. After returning home, Dan removed his jacket and was reminded of the letter he had received from Lieutenant Haffele. Despite being both physically and emotionally exhausted, he sat down and began to read the letter. It contained the innermost thoughts of a SEAL who had been spared death and who credited Michael with saving his life. The letter brought Dan comfort.

Again having arrived early for the 2:00 PM visitation, the Murphy and Duggan families remained near physical and emotional exhaustion. By the time the doors were closed at five that afternoon, the families had again received nearly a thousand mourners. As the family arrived for the final visitation at 7:00 PM, another line of mourners extended the length of the parking lot. Although McElhone closed the doors promptly at ten o’clock, the families remained until the very last visitor had been greeted. Neither Dan nor Maureen remembered even a small percentage of the nearly four thousand people they had received over the previous forty-eight hours, but they were grateful that each of them had thought enough of Michael
and his sacrifice to take time out of their busy schedules and wait in line for several hours in the heat and humidity to honor their son
.

The next day, with every detail of the funeral arranged, the Murphys awoke from their short night of sleep to a torrential rain, which only added to the early summer humidity. Dan arrived early at Maureen’s home, followed by the limousine from the Clayton Funeral Home that waited to take the family to yet another round of emotional turmoil that had begun more than two weeks before with events that occurred in the mountains of Afghanistan. Since then, the object of their sorrow had traveled from Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany to Dover Air Base, Delaware, then to Kings Park, New York, and now home to Patchogue, and would soon journey to Calverton National Cemetery, Michael’s final duty station and resting place.

After they arrived at the Clayton Funeral Home, a short private prayer service was conducted for the immediate family and the Navy personnel in attendance, and all said their final good-byes. Dan requested that Eddie place on Michael’s uniform the Purple Heart medal he had earned in Vietnam; Maureen, a St. Michael/ Navy SEAL keychain along with a key to her home. After the family left for the waiting vehicles, the casket was locked, secured, and covered with an American flag; the blue field at the head over Michael’s left shoulder. The Navy honor guard carried Michael slowly to the waiting hearse. As the casket was placed into the hearse, a loud roll of thunder was heard overhead, which lasted until the casket was completely inside. Dan and Maureen just looked at each other. With a police escort, the motorcade made its way across Long Island to Our Lady of Mount Carmel Catholic Church in Patchogue.