[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 126 (Thursday, July 25, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H7385]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        RECOGNIZING THE LIFE AND SERVICE OF JAMES HUSTON MURPHY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Loudermilk) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. LOUDERMILK. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the life 
and service of Mr. James Huston Murphy.
  James is a 94-year-old decorated World War II veteran as well as a 
native of the 11th Congressional District in Georgia.
  Jim graduated from Lanier High School for Boys in 1942 and was an 
officer in the school's ROTC program, where he was preparing for a 
career as an officer in the U.S. military. The ROTC program is where 
Jim learned valuable lessons that would serve him down the road during 
the war.
  In the fall of 1942, Jim enrolled at Georgia Tech, in Atlanta, with 
the hope of receiving an Army officer's commission through Tech's 
senior ROTC program. At that time, the United States was 4 years into 
World War II; and at the urging of Army recruiters, Jim and most of his 
fellow ROTC classmates enlisted in the Reserves because the military 
wanted them to complete college and officer training before going to 
Active Duty.
  However, that idea was short-lived, because in March of 1943, 
President Franklin D. Roosevelt called Jim's ROTC class and others 
across the Nation into immediate Active Duty. They were needed as 
ground troop replacements, and at that time, Jim was barely 18 years 
old.
  In the spring of 1943, Jim reported to Fort McPherson in Atlanta, 
where he faced many challenges, but nothing more daunting than passing 
the military standard eye exam. And I know you are thinking: How 
difficult is an eye exam? Well, for Jim it was nearly impossible 
because Jim was blind in his left eye from birth.
  This disability would disqualify Jim from serving in the military, 
but Jim was not going to let that stop him from serving his country. He 
believed that service was his duty, and after playing a few hand tricks 
during the exam, he passed.
  In March of 1944, Jim was entered to Camp Howze near Gainesville, 
Texas, to join the 103rd Infantry Division. The division was embroiled 
in intensive combat training, and since Jim had already received some 
artillery training, he was assigned to Battery C of the 928th Field 
Artillery Battalion, a 105-millimeter howitzer unit.
  They trained long and hard, knowing they were headed for war. They 
learned the mission of artillery to support advancing infantry ground 
forces in combat and how to bracket your target area by trial and 
error. Jim's job was to be the forward observer radio operator when 
they were in combat and a jeep driver when the battery was moving 
forward.

  Only a few months had passed since Jim was assigned to the 103rd 
Infantry Division before he was aboard the USS Monticello heading for 
the war.
  The trip across the Atlantic was anything but luxurious. The military 
had packed the ship like ``a can of sardines,'' as Jim put it; and the 
2-week voyage was full of severe storms and indescribable seasickness, 
and a fear of being torpedoed always loomed in the back of their minds.
  After arriving in France, it would not take long for Jim's combat 
unit to see their first action, and it occurred while they approached 
the Vosges Mountains in northeastern France. One of Jim's forward 
observer team was killed by rifle fire in the small town of Barr, which 
meant that Jim and the other member had to carry on the job a man 
short. For this, they were later awarded the Bronze Star.
  Jim survived the record winter that enveloped northern France, 
Belgium, and Germany during the war, but he did not leave unscathed. On 
Christmas night 1944, after finishing a warm meal, Jim became very sick 
while single-handedly manning a forward outpost only 200 yards from 
German soldiers. The pain became so intense that he had to be 
transported to a field hospital, and doctors determined he had a bad 
case of appendicitis.
  While Jim was lying in the hospital bed after appendix surgery, the 
Battle of the Bulge was just getting underway, and Jim realized his 
battery desperately need him. Going against doctors' orders, Jim put on 
his uniform, left the hospital, and hitched a ride back to his battery. 
The rest of Jim's unit was amazed he came back, and in the meantime, 
his battery commander had learned he was blind in one eye. Jim was 
nominated for the Silver Star, but Jim refused, as he felt any citation 
earned should go to the entire battery, not just him.
  Germany surrendered in May of 1945, marking the end of the war effort 
in Europe, but the war was still raging in the Pacific, and that is 
where Jim was sent. However, before Jim got there, the atomic bombs 
were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and World War II was soon over.
  In Jim's own words: ``My contributions to World War II, from 
enlistment to discharge, was 2 years, 11 months, and 14 days of my 
youth, including 9 months in combat. For this I am proud and have no 
regrets. I did not have to go to the war, but I believed it was my 
duty, and I wanted to go.''
  Jim will be the first to tell you his story is like so many others 
who fought in Europe during World War II, but in reading his memoirs, 
his selflessness, his duty to his country and fellow soldiers was quite 
exemplary.
  Mr. Speaker, Georgia's 11th Congressional District and the United 
States House of Representatives thanks Jim. We thank him for his 
service to our Nation and his sacrifice for our freedoms.

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