November 7, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, before his story was immortalized in the Hollywood movie Lone Survivor, Michael Murphy was a kid from New York who believed in duty over comfort. He earned his degree at Penn State University, was accepted to law school, and could have built a quiet, successful life. Instead, he chose the hardest path imaginable and joined the U.S. Navy SEALs.
Training pushed him past every limit, and what followed was a mission that tested everything he stood for. In 2005, during Operation Red Wings, Murphy led his team through the mountains of Afghanistan. When they were ambushed by hundreds of Taliban fighters, communication was their only hope. He stepped into the open, bullets cutting through the air, and made the call that saved his men.
Murphy was killed that day, but his courage lived on. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor, and his story continues to inspire those who serve. Kirk Higgins of the Bill of Rights Institute shares the story of a man who proved that real heroism is quiet, costly, and unbreakable.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
The twenty thirteen film Lone Survivor tells the story of
Operation Red Wings. The mission become one of the deadliest
in our War on Terror. One of those chosen to
lead this dangerous mission was Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who would
give his life on that slope and become the first
(00:32):
member of the Navy to receive the prestigious Medal of
Honor since the Vietnam War. Here to tell his story
is Kirk Higgins, vice president of Content at the Bill
of Rights Institute. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So I might say that Michael Murphy was born to
be a hero. Honor and service were part of his DNA.
He was born in nineteen seventy six on Long Island,
New York, and grew up in the village of Patchawk,
near the islands southern shore. His father, Daniel, was a
wounded Vietnam War veteran who went on to serve as
a prosecutor in Suffolk County, New York. Michael Murphy developed
(01:09):
a reputation early on for protecting and serving others. In
eighth grade, he confronted and stopped three bullies who were
trying to shove a special needs student into a Jim locker.
He spent his summers as a lifeguard, keeping swimmers safe
at Long Island Beaches. He was a standout student, too,
graduating from Penn State University with honors degrees in political
science and psychology. At this point, his life was at
(01:32):
a crossroads. He had been admitted to several law schools
and was considering a career as an attorney. Instead, he
decided to pursue one of the most difficult and dangerous
jobs in the United States military, becoming a Navy Seal.
He received an appointment to the US Navy's Officer Candidate
School in late two thousand and In January two thousand
(01:53):
and one, he began Basic Underwater Demolition Seal training, also
known as BUDS, in Cornado, California. Bud's training is famously grueling.
The attrition rate can be more than eighty percent, but
Murphy made it, graduating with Seal Class two thirty six.
At the beginning of two thousand and five, he was
deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and
(02:15):
it was during this deployment that he would demonstrate the
courage and self sacrifice for which he is still remembered.
In the spring of two thousand and five, US intelligence
was tracking the location of a Taliban leader who was
responsible for the recent deaths of several US Marines. Four
(02:44):
Navy seals were dispatched to find the leader in radio
in for a larger task force to capture or kill him.
The mission was known as Operation Red Wings. On the
(03:24):
evening of June twenty seventh, two thousand and five, the
small seal team climbed aboard a special operation helicopter and
lifted off into the dark night sky, heading toward a
destination near a spot about Afghanistan. At their landing zone,
they roped twenty feet to the ground and hiked through
the night over rocky terrain until they reached their assigned position.
But there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So we were watching the target, and all of a sudden,
a pair of little brown legs jumped over the muzzle
of my gun. Let me tell you something got my
attention fast. I didn't hear this guy, and seeing the
biggest thing was I didn't smell him. When we get
over there, our senses are so heightened we pick up
stuff that we normally wouldn't while we're over here and
tell you something got my attention. And as I came
up with my rifle to engage, he turned around, looked
at me and had an axe in his hand. Well,
(04:05):
what's your natural reaction after somebody scares you? You get
mad at him? Right, the same thing happening to me.
I'm a human being. I jumped over that log, subdued
and took that ax away from him. Had a big,
long beard. If anybody has one of those and you
want to get their attention, you grab him by it.
I'll tell you whatever you want to know. So I
rolled my fist up in his beard and I walked
back to where Danny was. I was like, get out
the way. I got to interrogate this guy. I was
just trying to get his shade, actually, But that's what.
(04:28):
But all the mountains in Afghanistan they came up on,
they came up on the woman we were sitting on.
In their world, that's in shell lock. God willed that,
and our world is murphy'slaw. We had Murphy with us,
so bad stuff always happen to us. About that time,
seventy or eighty goats came bebopping up the mountain every
side of it changed the whole dynamic of the mission.
And I know you're wondering why, but listen, when those goats,
they don't wait on those shepherds, They go back up,
(04:48):
follow that trail they've been following for two thousand years,
go back down to that village.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
They show up without the shepherds.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
The whole village comes back looking for him, make sure
nothing bad happened to him, and if anything kind of
feels uneasier out of place. That guy we've been chasing
and and got him in that village is gone. We
ran through some other stuff, but eventually, I mean every
scenario you could think of, zip tying everything, zip tying
the goats, all the ghost to goes like I didn't
bring enough and go to resilient. You zip tie five
(05:14):
of them together. They're still gonna wind up in that
village with a zip tie around the legs and made
in America? Where do you think that came from? So
some other stuff came in to play. And bottom line is,
though you know, after we're not murderers, all right, there's
a few things in the military don't play around with.
That's rate revenge and robbery. You can guarantee that we
don't mess around with that crap. So we cut them loose.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The seals, let the herders go, but knew they had
to move fast. There was a good chance they would
alert the local Taliban fighters. Sure enough, the sealt was
soon discovered by around two hundred enemy fighters.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh right above me was a tree, a big tree,
bigger than the rest of them. And all of a sudden,
I see a shroud and an ak muzzle. Peek around
the tree. All right, I throw my weapon on fire.
He kind of pulls his head back around. Can hear
him talking and setting up? Out of my peripheral I
could see him all moving around and everything like that.
I looked under my arm pit of Mikey as I
get on the clock. We're fixing and get it on.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There was a heavy exchange of gunfire, but it seemed
like every Taliban fighter that fell, a new one took
his place.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Small arms fire and belt fed stuff. No rockets yet,
no mortars yet or anything in that. It was so loud.
I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and
Danny and Mikey you could understand a word I was saying.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
The seal team was surrounded and forced to make a
desperate decision. They dove off a cliff to escape.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
We pinnedball through this grove with trees for about two
hundred yards. I landed on my back and I broke
my back in multiple places, broke my pelvis. And Mikey
landed on his face. I remember he crushed his face
pretty bad because when he sat up to look at me,
it was, you know, all bloody or whatever. He turned around,
Well that's when they hit us with the rockets and
the mortars in the world just kind of started blowing
(06:49):
up around us. Well, that's it was time to go
to work.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
As Latrell later wrote, Murphy quote was ignoring his wound
and fighting like a seal officer. Shit, uncompromising, steady, hard eyed,
and professional. They spread out into firing positions, but were
given no time to rest as the assault continued.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
At no point in time that it was any had
bought my teammates afraid of anything. At no point in
time to anybody stall in the door, so to speak.
They didn't kind of back up and say, hey, I
don't want to be in this. It was, Hey, this
is what we're here to do. Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
By this time, they had been fighting for about forty minutes,
but it felt like a lifetime. Murphy wanted to get
his men to safety and ordered them down another beam.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I broke my nose real bad, showed it through my
face actually, and I bit my tongue in half and
I swallowed it, and that totally incapacitated me. I was
on all fours. I mean like I's trying to throw
that thing up. Man. I finally got it up.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
At this point, Murphy turned to Latrell to bolster his
courage and said, quote, remember, bro, We're never out of it.
The fierce firefight raged on, but the Seals were helplessly outnumbered.
Axelson was shot in the head but continued to fire
his rifle. Murphy, still bleeding and suffering several wounds, knew
something had to be done. In a moment of extraordinary bravery,
he turned to a last resort to help himself and
(08:06):
his men.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
In the movie, they kind of portrayed this the right way,
but except for one piece, and that's where we were separated.
He didn't die alone, and all my guys that got killed,
I was right there. Mikey was out on his boulder,
out in the middle of the fatal funnel, no cover,
no nothing on our satellite phone. Forgot he had had that.
He took two rounds to the chest. It's funny, like
a top dropped him on his face. Has bothered me
(08:28):
so bad. I mean, Danny was dead and the acts
was dying, and Mikey had just been hit. I thought
he was dead. I slow my weapon, tried to crawl
up to him and couldn't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He took out a mobile phone that these seals only
used in extreme situations, as it revealed the location and
had to be used in the open. He walked through
heavy gunfire to sit on a rock and contacted headquarters.
He dialed the number and yelled to be heard. My
men are taking fire. We're getting picked apart. My guys
are dying out here. We need help. Then he was
(08:59):
shot in the back. Miraculously he finished the call.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He sat up with his rifle, finished a phone call off,
took around, straightened the spine, dropped him on his face. Well,
he sat up again. I was waving my hands and
then one fire my weapon. I was just waving my hands.
All I wanted him to do is come down to me.
I was like, just get down here to me. I'll
carry you out of here, man, I'll get us out
of here. And he went left. I lost sight of
him behind his rock embankment. I heard his weapon go off,
a lot of gunfire in there. Then he started screaming
(09:24):
for help. He's like, I need help up here, man,
I need help.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Moments later, he was killed by four Taliban fighters. Michael
Murphy died heroically trying to save his men, and he
was not alone. Sixteen American soldiers gave their lives when
their helicopter was shot down trying to reach Murphy and
his men. Latrell was the only survivor of Murphy's four
man seal team. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of
(09:49):
Honor in two thousand and seven. A Navy destroyer bears
his name. In fitness, fanatics regularly engage in a grueling
exercise regiment he created, known as the Murph Challenge. Latrell wrote,
was there ever a greater seal team commander? An officer
who fought to the last and, as perhaps his dying move,
risked everything to save his remaining men, not a gesture
(10:11):
an act of supreme valor. Lieutenant Mikey was a wonderful
person and a very very great officer. If they ever
built a memorial to him as high as the Empire
State Building, it won't ever be high enough for me.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The story of Lieutenant Michael Murphy here on our American
Stories
This is Lee Habib, and this is our American Stories.
The twenty thirteen film Lone Survivor tells the story of
Operation Red Wings. The mission become one of the deadliest
in our War on Terror. One of those chosen to
lead this dangerous mission was Lieutenant Michael Murphy, who would
give his life on that slope and become the first
(00:32):
member of the Navy to receive the prestigious Medal of
Honor since the Vietnam War. Here to tell his story
is Kirk Higgins, vice president of Content at the Bill
of Rights Institute. Let's get into the story.
Speaker 2 (00:49):
So I might say that Michael Murphy was born to
be a hero. Honor and service were part of his DNA.
He was born in nineteen seventy six on Long Island,
New York, and grew up in the village of Patchawk,
near the islands southern shore. His father, Daniel, was a
wounded Vietnam War veteran who went on to serve as
a prosecutor in Suffolk County, New York. Michael Murphy developed
(01:09):
a reputation early on for protecting and serving others. In
eighth grade, he confronted and stopped three bullies who were
trying to shove a special needs student into a Jim locker.
He spent his summers as a lifeguard, keeping swimmers safe
at Long Island Beaches. He was a standout student, too,
graduating from Penn State University with honors degrees in political
science and psychology. At this point, his life was at
(01:32):
a crossroads. He had been admitted to several law schools
and was considering a career as an attorney. Instead, he
decided to pursue one of the most difficult and dangerous
jobs in the United States military, becoming a Navy Seal.
He received an appointment to the US Navy's Officer Candidate
School in late two thousand and In January two thousand
(01:53):
and one, he began Basic Underwater Demolition Seal training, also
known as BUDS, in Cornado, California. Bud's training is famously grueling.
The attrition rate can be more than eighty percent, but
Murphy made it, graduating with Seal Class two thirty six.
At the beginning of two thousand and five, he was
deployed to Afghanistan as part of Operation Enduring Freedom, and
(02:15):
it was during this deployment that he would demonstrate the
courage and self sacrifice for which he is still remembered.
In the spring of two thousand and five, US intelligence
was tracking the location of a Taliban leader who was
responsible for the recent deaths of several US Marines. Four
(02:44):
Navy seals were dispatched to find the leader in radio
in for a larger task force to capture or kill him.
The mission was known as Operation Red Wings. On the
(03:24):
evening of June twenty seventh, two thousand and five, the
small seal team climbed aboard a special operation helicopter and
lifted off into the dark night sky, heading toward a
destination near a spot about Afghanistan. At their landing zone,
they roped twenty feet to the ground and hiked through
the night over rocky terrain until they reached their assigned position.
But there was a problem.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So we were watching the target, and all of a sudden,
a pair of little brown legs jumped over the muzzle
of my gun. Let me tell you something got my
attention fast. I didn't hear this guy, and seeing the
biggest thing was I didn't smell him. When we get
over there, our senses are so heightened we pick up
stuff that we normally wouldn't while we're over here and
tell you something got my attention. And as I came
up with my rifle to engage, he turned around, looked
at me and had an axe in his hand. Well,
(04:05):
what's your natural reaction after somebody scares you? You get
mad at him? Right, the same thing happening to me.
I'm a human being. I jumped over that log, subdued
and took that ax away from him. Had a big,
long beard. If anybody has one of those and you
want to get their attention, you grab him by it.
I'll tell you whatever you want to know. So I
rolled my fist up in his beard and I walked
back to where Danny was. I was like, get out
the way. I got to interrogate this guy. I was
just trying to get his shade, actually, But that's what.
(04:28):
But all the mountains in Afghanistan they came up on,
they came up on the woman we were sitting on.
In their world, that's in shell lock. God willed that,
and our world is murphy'slaw. We had Murphy with us,
so bad stuff always happen to us. About that time,
seventy or eighty goats came bebopping up the mountain every
side of it changed the whole dynamic of the mission.
And I know you're wondering why, but listen, when those goats,
they don't wait on those shepherds, They go back up,
(04:48):
follow that trail they've been following for two thousand years,
go back down to that village.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
They show up without the shepherds.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
The whole village comes back looking for him, make sure
nothing bad happened to him, and if anything kind of
feels uneasier out of place. That guy we've been chasing
and and got him in that village is gone. We
ran through some other stuff, but eventually, I mean every
scenario you could think of, zip tying everything, zip tying
the goats, all the ghost to goes like I didn't
bring enough and go to resilient. You zip tie five
(05:14):
of them together. They're still gonna wind up in that
village with a zip tie around the legs and made
in America? Where do you think that came from? So
some other stuff came in to play. And bottom line is,
though you know, after we're not murderers, all right, there's
a few things in the military don't play around with.
That's rate revenge and robbery. You can guarantee that we
don't mess around with that crap. So we cut them loose.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
The seals, let the herders go, but knew they had
to move fast. There was a good chance they would
alert the local Taliban fighters. Sure enough, the sealt was
soon discovered by around two hundred enemy fighters.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
Oh right above me was a tree, a big tree,
bigger than the rest of them. And all of a sudden,
I see a shroud and an ak muzzle. Peek around
the tree. All right, I throw my weapon on fire.
He kind of pulls his head back around. Can hear
him talking and setting up? Out of my peripheral I
could see him all moving around and everything like that.
I looked under my arm pit of Mikey as I
get on the clock. We're fixing and get it on.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
There was a heavy exchange of gunfire, but it seemed
like every Taliban fighter that fell, a new one took
his place.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
Small arms fire and belt fed stuff. No rockets yet,
no mortars yet or anything in that. It was so loud.
I was screaming at the top of my lungs, and
Danny and Mikey you could understand a word I was saying.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
The seal team was surrounded and forced to make a
desperate decision. They dove off a cliff to escape.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
We pinnedball through this grove with trees for about two
hundred yards. I landed on my back and I broke
my back in multiple places, broke my pelvis. And Mikey
landed on his face. I remember he crushed his face
pretty bad because when he sat up to look at me,
it was, you know, all bloody or whatever. He turned around,
Well that's when they hit us with the rockets and
the mortars in the world just kind of started blowing
(06:49):
up around us. Well, that's it was time to go
to work.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
As Latrell later wrote, Murphy quote was ignoring his wound
and fighting like a seal officer. Shit, uncompromising, steady, hard eyed,
and professional. They spread out into firing positions, but were
given no time to rest as the assault continued.
Speaker 3 (07:08):
At no point in time that it was any had
bought my teammates afraid of anything. At no point in
time to anybody stall in the door, so to speak.
They didn't kind of back up and say, hey, I
don't want to be in this. It was, Hey, this
is what we're here to do. Let's do this.
Speaker 2 (07:23):
By this time, they had been fighting for about forty minutes,
but it felt like a lifetime. Murphy wanted to get
his men to safety and ordered them down another beam.
Speaker 3 (07:32):
I broke my nose real bad, showed it through my
face actually, and I bit my tongue in half and
I swallowed it, and that totally incapacitated me. I was
on all fours. I mean like I's trying to throw
that thing up. Man. I finally got it up.
Speaker 2 (07:43):
At this point, Murphy turned to Latrell to bolster his
courage and said, quote, remember, bro, We're never out of it.
The fierce firefight raged on, but the Seals were helplessly outnumbered.
Axelson was shot in the head but continued to fire
his rifle. Murphy, still bleeding and suffering several wounds, knew
something had to be done. In a moment of extraordinary bravery,
he turned to a last resort to help himself and
(08:06):
his men.
Speaker 3 (08:06):
In the movie, they kind of portrayed this the right way,
but except for one piece, and that's where we were separated.
He didn't die alone, and all my guys that got killed,
I was right there. Mikey was out on his boulder,
out in the middle of the fatal funnel, no cover,
no nothing on our satellite phone. Forgot he had had that.
He took two rounds to the chest. It's funny, like
a top dropped him on his face. Has bothered me
(08:28):
so bad. I mean, Danny was dead and the acts
was dying, and Mikey had just been hit. I thought
he was dead. I slow my weapon, tried to crawl
up to him and couldn't make it.
Speaker 2 (08:37):
He took out a mobile phone that these seals only
used in extreme situations, as it revealed the location and
had to be used in the open. He walked through
heavy gunfire to sit on a rock and contacted headquarters.
He dialed the number and yelled to be heard. My
men are taking fire. We're getting picked apart. My guys
are dying out here. We need help. Then he was
(08:59):
shot in the back. Miraculously he finished the call.
Speaker 3 (09:03):
He sat up with his rifle, finished a phone call off,
took around, straightened the spine, dropped him on his face. Well,
he sat up again. I was waving my hands and
then one fire my weapon. I was just waving my hands.
All I wanted him to do is come down to me.
I was like, just get down here to me. I'll
carry you out of here, man, I'll get us out
of here. And he went left. I lost sight of
him behind his rock embankment. I heard his weapon go off,
a lot of gunfire in there. Then he started screaming
(09:24):
for help. He's like, I need help up here, man,
I need help.
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Moments later, he was killed by four Taliban fighters. Michael
Murphy died heroically trying to save his men, and he
was not alone. Sixteen American soldiers gave their lives when
their helicopter was shot down trying to reach Murphy and
his men. Latrell was the only survivor of Murphy's four
man seal team. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of
(09:49):
Honor in two thousand and seven. A Navy destroyer bears
his name. In fitness, fanatics regularly engage in a grueling
exercise regiment he created, known as the Murph Challenge. Latrell wrote,
was there ever a greater seal team commander? An officer
who fought to the last and, as perhaps his dying move,
risked everything to save his remaining men, not a gesture
(10:11):
an act of supreme valor. Lieutenant Mikey was a wonderful
person and a very very great officer. If they ever
built a memorial to him as high as the Empire
State Building, it won't ever be high enough for me.
Speaker 1 (10:26):
The story of Lieutenant Michael Murphy here on our American
Stories
Host
Lee Habeeb
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