"Lone Survivor" Opens Today - Coffee With Lt. Michael Murphy's Dad

Coffee With Lt. Michael Murphy’s Dad - LI Hero -American Hero - Lone Survivor and SEAL of Honor

Maureen Rossi

photo wikipediaThe late Lt. Michael Murphy’s father Dan met me at the Lake Grove Diner this week to present me with two inscribed copies of the biography of his son’s life, SEAL of Honor. They were limited editions signed by the author Gary Williams; they were also commemorative issues for the USS Michael Murphy (DDg-11), the Destroyer named for his son.  One book was for my very patriotic and beloved father, Michael Ledden and the second for the small library in my home office.  Both of us being of Irish decent with families hailing from Queens, Dan and I soon found we had a lot in common; relatives named Michael, Maureen and Brian, the gift of gab and loved ones ‘on the job’ (cops and fireman).  Over bad coffee we shared small bits of our lives; he was in an excited mood.    The movie depicting his late son’s last battle in the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, Lone Survivor, opens nation-wide January 10th.   His oldest boy Michael Murphy was amongst the nation’s elite of the elite, he was a Navy SEAL and a commanding officer.    Lone Survivor is the title of the book written by Murphy’s best friend and Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell; the film (sharing its name) has gotten rave reviews from the bi-coastal premiers on Christmas Day.   I look forward to seeing the film this weekend  and I look forward to reading both books; SEAL of Honor and Lone Survivor.  

Dan told me he thoroughly enjoyed both books but there were some slight disparities, mainly regarding the goat herders whom the four Navy SEALs came upon in the Kunar Province by the border of Pakistan on June 28, 2005.   Dan said in Luttrell’s book it sounded as though the four Navy SEALs were voting about the decision as to whether or not to let the goat herders go or to kill them.   He said he and Michael’s mother knew their son, they knew that as a commanding officer there would be no vote – that Michael was addressing the issue but had already made up his mind.  Dan said he knew his son could not cut the throat of thirteen boys herding the family goats.   

Dan spoke strongly and assuredly on this issue and all issues regarding his son.   In the nine long years since his son, a Long Island hero and an American Hero lost his battle to Taliban fighters – I have seen Dan on Fox News and New York T.V. stations and he has always had the similar composure as the one I saw at the diner.   

However, things changed as he began to share the story of his son’s last journey home.   Dan and Michael’s mother Maureen met Michael’s body at Dover Airport in Delaware.   Dan made the decision to ride in the hearse with his son and Maureen rode in a limousine provided by her Kings Park relatives who own Clayton’s funeral home where Michael was to be laid out.   Dan explained they were escorted in each state by two cop cars.  I watched Dan carefully as he paused to gather his composure and then right before me this tough Vietnam veteran began to cry as he shared his memories.   He said when they arrived at the New York border, former Police Commissioner Ray Kelly had well over fifty cop cars waiting to escort them, he then had the entire Belt Parkway closed down and at every single exit, New York City cops stood at attention and saluted Lt. Michael Murphy as the hearse drove by.   

Over empty cups of coffee, in a crowded diner we wept together.  I cried for his son and the hole in his heart that would never be filled and I cried for all our boys and girls who have returned back to this great nation in a casket over the last decade.    They were not my first nor will they be the last tears I shed for Lt. Michael Murphy – his beautiful face adorns the book jacket of Seal of Honor, it sits quietly in my office beckoning me to read it.   Lt. Michael Murphy was highly decorated and awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor; he is a Long Island hero and an American hero.    it is with great honor that I will see the film Lone Survivor and I encourage all Long Islander’s to do the same.   Dan and I culminated our short meeting and we embraced, we exchanged numbers and promised to stay in touch.  The former prosecutor drove out of the Lake Grove Diner parking lot in his BMW with his Purple Heart license plates, he’s a veteran of war, a proud Navy SEAL father and sadly part of a club no parent ever wants be in.  

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