Master Sgt. Noel Murphy
Airman’s Medal WOW!
Maj. Gen. David Eidsaune, Air Force Program Executive Officer for Weapons and Air Armament Center commander, awards Master Sgt. Noel Murphy the Airman’s Medal Nov. 20, for his heroic actions while deployed to Iraq. Sergeant Murphy was also awarded the Air Force Combat Medal during the ceremony.
The Air Force Combat Action Medal is presented to Airmen whose duties take them into a combat zone or “outside the wire” on the ground or in the air. Strong, secure families back home help these warriors focus on the job at hand, the general said.
“This is a family award too,” he said. “If you are over there eye-to-eye with the enemy, you don’t want anything in your family life on your mind because you are a danger to yourself, and a danger to your teammates. The fact that (the family) is taking care of business back home allows them to be courageous like (these Airmen) are.”
During the ceremony, Sergeant Murphy was also awarded the Airman’s Medal for his actions at Haditha Dam Dec. 3, 2006 after a Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopter tried to make an emergency landing. Sixteen people in full combat gear were plunged into the cold, 300-foot deep waters of Lake Quadisiya, the dammed up portion of the Euphrates River.
“I lost a very good friend in the process of what earned me an Airman’s medal,” Sergeant Murphy said. “This medal comes with a loss.”
Seeing what happened, Sergeant Murphy ran across the helicopter pad narrowly missing the blades from another chopper that was on approach for landing. He scaled the dam to reach the banks below and dove in head-first to start extracting drowning victims.
“I was just trying to help the folks out. They were drowning,” he said. All Sergeant Murphy could think about was to “get them out.”
The first person he came to was fighting to stay above the water nearly 40 meters from the shore. The individual nearly took Sergeant Murphy under the frigid water with him as they struggled to reach safety. Ignoring his body’s cries to stop and warm up, he kept swimming. Repeatedly, Sergeant Murphy dove into the water to help rescue the passengers of the downed helicopter.
“After a couple minutes in there, your legs start cramping, your arms start cramping, (it’s) hard to breathe, it was cold,” he said. “There were a few times there I was wondering if I was going to make it back to the shore or not.”
Despite the frigid water’s effects, Sergeant Murphy pressed on because “there were people that needed help.” With the help of bystanders, a daisy chain was assembled to help rescue as many people as possible. In the end, 12 of the 16 passengers were rescued.
“The recovery effort went into the next day and we actually lost four people that day,” he said. “One of those being a friend of mine — Capt. Kermit Evans.”
Only eight Airman’s Medals have been awarded in 2007.
The Airman’s Medal was established by Congress on July 6, 1960, to take the place of the Soldier’s medal which, up until that time, had been awarded to Air Force personnel. The Soldier’s medal was established by Act of Congress on July 2, 1926, for award to any member of the Armed Forces of the United States, or of a friendly foreign nation, who while serving in any capacity with the Army of the United States distinguished himself by heroism not involving actual conflict with an enemy.
“That just makes you so extremely proud,” Colonel Pohland said. “This young man put his life in jeopardy for others and did it automatically, without really even thinking about it — just a reaction to a potentially deadly circumstance.”
Sergeant Murphy was assigned to the 332nd Expeditionary Civil Engineer Squadron Nov. 5, 2004, when a vehicle in front of his was struck by an improvised explosive device. His team quickly assessed the situation, and then proceeded to disarm the original IED they were responding to. Their convoy was hit twice more by small arms fire while returning to base. No one was hurt during these attacks.
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