The Brutal Cost Of Being America’s Most Decorated Soldier D
On May 28th, 1971, Audi Murphy boarded a private plane despite heavy rain and dense fog. As weather conditions worsened, the pilot began to lose control, but didn’t report any trouble. Moments later, things took a horrifying turn. Audi Murphy was on the surface the pinnacle of an all-American life.
After becoming the most decorated man in US Army history and a World War II hero, he went on to hit it big in Hollywood in a classic rags to riches tale. But all that came at a devastating cost to his mental health. Audi Murphy was born in Kingston, Texas in 1925. His parents, Emmett and Josie, were sharecroers, an exploited position that meant the family always struggled to make ends meet.
He was the seventh of 12 children, and all those stomachs meant that the family’s resources were stretched very thin. Growing up, Audi was reportedly a loner who suffered from dramatic mood swings and a short and explosive temper. As in most cases of troubled children, home life was the likely explanation. EMTT wasn’t a prime candidate for any father of the year awards.
Whenever things got tough, he would disappear for days, constantly drifting in and out of Audi’s life over the course of his childhood before eventually abandoning the family forever. With EMTT out of the picture, every member of the Murphy family old enough to help out had to answer the call. Audi dropped out of school in the fifth grade to pick up a job picking cotton.
He became a dab hand with a rifle skillfully hunting small game to feed his family. In 1941, when he was still just a teenager, his mother Josie died from a bout of pneumonia exacerbated by endocarditis. The loss devastated the Murphy children. Finding himself an orphan at the age of 16, Audi’s despair and grief would last the rest of his life.
Years later, he gushed about his mother in an interview, commenting on her beauty and thoughtful but stoic nature and concluding with a devastating admission. When she passed away, she took something of me with her. It seems I’ve been searching for it ever since. Like many boys of his generation, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 had a profound effect on Audi, and he was eager to enlist and serve his country as they entered World War II. There was one problem, however.
He was still too young, so he had his older sister help him forge documents, falsifying his age. At first, the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps all turned him down for being underweight. Eventually, he packed on enough pounds to be enlisted in the army. On June 30th, 1942, Audi was deployed to Casablanca in February 1943.
He immediately excelled, showing bravery and prowess in battle despite his small frame. Soon he received a promotion to corporal and was assigned to the Allied invasion of Sicily where again he met the moment bravely. The army selected Murphy as part of Operation Avalanche, a significant push in the Allied invasion of the Italian mainland.
While he was on a scouting mission along the Volterno River, Audi and his two companions were ambushed by German forces. Despite one of his men being shot, Murphy and his remaining comrade successfully took out five enemy soldiers with grenades and suppressive fire.
His bravery earned him a promotion to sergeant. His exploits culminated in the liberation of Rome on June 4th, 1944, a decisive turning point in the war. Deployment wasn’t an easy experience for Audi Murphy, and it wasn’t just for the obvious reasons. His malnourished upbringing meant that he was prone to illness, and he suffered multiple bouts of sickness over the course of the campaign, including malaria.
Deployed next to assist the Allied invasion of southern France, the young soldier proved himself again and again in thrilling displays of bravery, including one incident where he advanced on a German occupied building alone and under direct fire and ended up neutralizing six enemies, wounding two, and taking 11 prisoners.
Murphy was unstoppable. In January 1945, he found himself in France’s Kmar pocket, where his platoon came under heavy attack from German forces. After instructing his company to retreat, Audi was the only remaining Allied soldier and incredibly managed to single-handedly hold off a company of German attackers for an entire hour.
He was wounded during this incident, but amazingly once reinforcements arrived, the plucky 19-year-old successfully led a counterattack against the Germans. It was an epic moment pulled directly from a movie. Indeed, Murphy had something of a flare for the dramatics. The US Army awarded Audi the Medal of Honor, the highest decoration given by the United States Armed Forces.
By the time he returned home, he’d received every US Army combat award for valor available to enlisted men who served in World War II. So heroic was his performance that even other countries recognized him. Though there’s been some minor contention, most agree that Audi Murphy is the most highly decorated enlisted man in United States history.
His valorous service has become the stuff of legend. But in conflict, no heroism comes without great cost to the opposing side. Audi racked up an astonishing total of 241 confirmed kills. Before he’d even set foot back on American soil, the higherups in the US Army were already making inquiries about naming Audi Murphy a prospect for attendance at West Point Academy, the institution that educates officers and grooms them for command.
Audi never pursued his enrollment further, however, with some positing that the prospect of studying for the entrance exam was beyond his capability and indeed his desire. Regardless, when he finally returned home, he received a hero’s welcome. He was showered with elaborate parades, grand banquetss, and adoring speeches.
The American people were eager to hear his side of the story, and he eventually obliged them. With the help of collaborator David Mccclure, Audi began to work on his memoirs detailing his life and exploits in the European theater of World War II. In 1945, he was featured on the cover of the July 16th issue of Life magazine in a story depicting him as the most decorated World War II fighter.
This brought him to the attention of Hollywood actor and producer James Kagny, who saw potential in Audi’s story. For the next 20 years, Murphy would embark on a successful acting career, quickly becoming the obvious choice for a starring role. I have to go away for a while. For how long, I don’t know.
10 years into his acting career, Murphy’s memoirs were optioned for a motion picture adaptation, and the hunt was on for an actor to play the lead role. There was of course an obvious candidate and though he was reluctant at first, Audi eventually agreed to play himself in the 1955 autobiographical film also named To Hell and Back.
All I talk to you and I’ve had about it. I’ve decided to go in for service. I was hoping you’d say that it’ll be Oddly enough though, it wasn’t the kind of movie he usually led. Standing guard this way. Old Spangler must be somewhere around. Big as life. Murphy’s storied acting career saw him feature in over 40 movies, the overwhelming majority of which were westerns.
Who’s the villain in this piece? Me or the physician? He met fellow Hollywood thespian Wanda Hendris in 1946, married her in 1949, and got divorced in 1951. He would marry for a second time later that year. While assisting in writing his memoirs, David Mccclure discovered that Audi had a knack for writing poetry.
Mccclure encouraged him to pursue his talents and the accomplished veteran would go on to make something of a side hustle as a successful songwriter. He would write poetry as a creative stress outlet, penning pieces like The Cross’s Grow on Anzio about his experiences overseas. He seemed to make positive strides in dealing with his turmoil.
Murphy now found himself with wealth he could scarcely imagine growing up near malnourished in Texas. He took that money and invested it in his hobbies and passions, purchasing two ranches in California and Arizona, where he bred quarter horses. With the horses he bred, Audi entered the horse racing scene both as a rider and a provider of horses for other jockeyies, becoming a regular participant at the Delmare racetrack in California.
He seemed to have many distractions in life and given his mental state during this time, those distractions were much needed. Since returning from the war, Murphy found himself plagued with regular bouts of depression and wrestled with constant insomnia. His mental state only worsened as the years went on.
And though at the time his condition was termed battle fatigue, doctors today would diagnose Audi with a serious case of post-traumatic stress disorder. Whenever he did manage to sleep, he greatly suffered with nightmares about his time at war. For years, he would sleep with a loaded pistol under his pillow, a sign of his deepening paranoia.
His first marriage hadn’t lasted long, and his struggles with PTSD likely played a role in its dissolution. In a later recounting of her marriage to Audi, Wanda Hendris claimed he once held her at gunpoint in a bout of paranoid confusion and rage. Murphy’s PTSD would manifest in less violent, but no less devastating ways, too.
Speaking to his complex character, one humanizing aspect of Murphy’s experience with PTSD was his guilt over the lives he’d taken overseas. According to another account from Hrix, she once witnessed her ex-husband tearing up while watching news reel footage of German children orphaned by the conflict.
Guilt can be a heavy thing to live with, and Audi Murphy pursued the wrong kind of remedy. Between his guilt and his horrific nightmares, Murphy’s insomnia eventually got to be too much. Seeking solace in substances, Audi developed a dependency on sleeping pills, using them daily with the hopes of getting just one precious dreamless sleep.
Eventually recognizing that he’d become dependent on sedatives, he took drastic measures. At some point in the mid 1960s, he locked himself alone in a hotel room for a week to kick the habit. His efforts were successful and he found other healthier ways to deal with his pain. As the United States marred itself in further conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, Audi Murphy astutely noticed the effects those experiences had on the next generation of returning veterans.
He began candidly speaking out about his own experience with shell shock and advocated for state support for returning soldiers. In Murphy’s later years, he found himself plagued with financial troubles. He’d lost a lot of money gambling at the horse track, had made some bad investments, and faced tax trouble with the IRS.
Through it all, though, he remained steadfast in his values. Because of his reputation as a movie star, companies often pursued Audi Murphy to appear in commercials. During his financial dire straits, they courted him to advertise cigarettes and alcohol products. Murphy was mindful of the poor example that would set for young people, and though he desperately needed the money, refused to take part in commercials for products he didn’t endorse.
It would be the last great stand that the agrieved war veteran would take. Can’t oblig it. On May 28th, 1971, Murphy boarded a private plane in Virginia. Weather conditions were awful with heavy rain, clouds, and fog, but the pilot chose to continue with the flight anyway. Although conditions were worsening with witnesses claiming the plane was flying in circles, the pilot didn’t report any trouble.
Amidst the terrible visibility, tragedy struck. The plane collided with a mountain 14 nautical miles northwest of Ruanoke, Virginia. There were no survivors. After a thrilling and troubled life, Audi Murphy left this mortal plane at just 45 years old. The state gave him one final salute. He was interred with honors at Arlington National Cemetery, a graveyard outside Washington DC where some of America’s greatest heroes are buried.
In true humble fashion, Murphy had requested that his gravestone remain inconspicuous, no different from that of any other enlisted man. Over the years, thousands of visitors to Arlington have paid their respects to Audi Murphy, recognizing his colossal and heroic achievements. His grave site remains the second most visited in Arlington behind only that of John F.
Kennedy. It’s a touching sign that despite his troubles, the skinny young boy from Texas made a near presidential impact on his fellow countrymen. Thanks for watching History Expose. If you love uncovering the best stories in history, hit like and subscribe to keep exploring with us.
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