Audie Murphy
World War II
“America’s most decorated soldier”, Audie Murphy occupies a unique place among those millions who volunteered to defend our nation in WW2. His story is a true “rags to riches” story and a memorable example of those whom we respectfully call “our Greatest Generation.” Audy came from desperately poor beginnings, the son of an east Texas sharecropper who fathered 7 children and eventually abandoned his family, forcing Audy to leave school in the 5th grade in order to support brothers and sisters by picking cotton for $1 a day and hunting small game to help feed them.
His mother died when he was 16 shortly before the United States was forced into WW2 by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Initially rejected from joining our Army because he was too young, his sister helped him back date his birth date by one year so he could join. He served in combat as an Infantryman in the 3rd Infantry Division, starting with the invasion of Sicily in July 1943 and fighting the Nazis and Italians all the way up the Italian peninsula for over a year. He earned every award for valor in combat that America could bestow.
