[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 8]
[House]
[Page 11144]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING THE LIFE OF FALLEN JACKSONVILLE SOLDIER, MARINE SERGEANT 
                             JOSEPH MURRAY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Florida (Mr. Rutherford) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. RUTHERFORD. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in memory of Marine 
Sergeant Joseph Murray, who paid the ultimate sacrifice on July 12, 
2017, when a KC-130 military transport plane crashed in the Mississippi 
Delta.
  Sergeant Murray had lived in Jacksonville, Florida, since he was 10 
years old and was a military dependent whose father was in the Navy for 
over 20 years. He was a Sandalwood High School graduate in the class of 
2009, and joined the Marines that same year. He was stationed at Camp 
Lejeune, North Carolina.
  Sergeant Murray was promoted three times in the first 3 years he was 
in the Marine Corps, and he was very proud of his two deployments to 
Afghanistan. He told his father he wanted to be a grunt instead of an 
intelligence officer because ``that is the hardest thing to do.'' He 
died as a member of a special operations team, where his closest 
friends were the fellow marines who served next to him.
  Sergeant Murray was a proud husband and father, with four children: a 
5-year-old son, a 3-year-old daughter, and 1-year-old twin boys.
  He met his wife, Gayle, the same year he joined the military, and he 
was a family man who loved to serve others. Gayle said that he would do 
anything for his family and loved to play his guitar for them. She 
said: ``What he wanted most in the world, besides his family's 
happiness, was to destroy evil on Earth.''
  His father, Terry, stated the only thing stronger than his commitment 
to his family was his commitment to his church. In fact, he was known 
to hum praise and worship songs when he was on patrol, and his fellow 
servicemembers looked to him as a faith leader. A fellow marine 
mentioned: ``When Joseph stopped that humming and singing praises, they 
took the safeties off their weapons because they thought something was 
up. All was well when Joseph was with them.''
  His father said: ``The city of Jacksonville should be very proud to 
have had his son come from here.''
  I can attest today for the citizens of northeast Florida that we are 
very proud, very proud and honored to have had Sergeant Murray 
defending our freedoms. Sergeant Murray's dedication to his faith, 
family, and nation will always be remembered.
  May God bless and keep you and your family.
  Semper fi, Sergeant Murray.

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