Ship to be named for Medal winner

A U.S. Navy destroyer will be named after Lt. Michael P.

Murphy, the Patchogue native who was killed in Afghanistan in 2005 while

seeking help for his platoon members who had come under intense fire from the

Taliban, officials said yesterday.

At a ceremony on the eastern shore of Lake Ronkonkoma - on a beach

previously named after Murphy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor last

September - Navy Secretary Donald Winter said the keel of the destroyer would

be laid in June 2009 at a shipyard in Maine and the ship commissioned in 2011.

Winter said while Navy warships are traditionally named after major

historical figures, the naming of the destroyer after Murphy was "an

opportunity to recognize this new generation of heroes." The announcement

pleased Murphy's family. "I am at a loss; what do you say?" said Murphy's

father, Daniel Murphy, of Wading River. "'Thank you' seems so trivial in light

of such an honor to our son."

Murphy and a four-man Navy SEAL team were on a mountainside in eastern

Afghanistan trailing a Taliban leader when they were surrounded by dozens of

fighters. In receiving the Medal of Honor, Murphy was cited for exposing

himself to enemy fire while trying to radio for help. Murphy and two others

were killed; a fourth SEAL was saved when an Afghan herder came upon him and

took him to his village for safekeeping.

Rear Admiral Joseph Kernan, commander of the Naval Special Warfare Command

under which Murphy served, said the ship's naming represents the pinnacle of

naval honors.

ABOUT THE SHIP

The U.S. Navy ship to be named after Lt. Michael P. Murphy is an Arleigh Burke

class destroyer equipped with the Aegis combat system. Destroyers of this

class weigh 9,200 tons, are 509 feet long, and can reach speeds of up to 30

knots.