Memories of a War Hero – Audie Murphy

by Danny True

Don’t let the title fool you. This article is about honors and awards and will reference Audie Murphy!

Graduation is upon us in colleges and universities and time to give accolades (via diplomas) to those who have completed their academic and scholastic work. Also, there will be awards given to selected persons for their “contributions to mankind”. I would like to explore the granting of awards and honors, both in academia and in society as a whole.

We have seen for years awards given to those in military service for their bravery, sacrifice and other criteria. Purple Heart, Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, Bronze Star, etc. There are many more military awards, but the highest one that can be given is the Congressional Medal of Honor, awarded for “gallantry and intrepidity at risk of life above and beyond the call of duty”. One (very few) who have earned THAT award, regardless of rank, is to be honored by ALL military members, with a salute. Even the highest general or admiral is to salute a Medal of Honor Winner! The Award itself has silver stars on a field of blue, more stars than ever given to a general!

Audie Murphy was the highest decorated soldier during WWII, with 33 U. S. medals including three purple hearts and the Congressional Medal of Honor, plus five from France and one from Belgium!

Obviously, you can tell that Audie Murphy was my “hero” when I was growing up (by the way, that’s still going on!). When I joined the Army in 1957 I wound up at Ft. Benning, GA, where the 3rd Division was stationed. Audie’s old outfit, the 15th Infantry Regiment, was a part of the 3rd Div. and they had a lot of the Murphy awards, decorations and memorability (he was still alive then).

Audie was born in Texas to Irish sharecropper parents. He quit school in the eighth grade to work for one dollar a day to feed the family (his father deserted them in 1936). It has been rumored that he sent his full military pay to care for his nine surviving siblings (his mother died in 1941). He enlisted when he was 16 and in 27 months of service, the 5 foot, 6 inch tall  Texas “boy” did his part in the defense of his country!

After he  left the military in 1945, he was brought to Hollywood by actor James Cagney. All told he spent 25 years there making 44 feature films, 33 of them Westerns. On Memorial weekend (May 28) in 1971, Major Murphy and five others died in a private plane crash into foggy Brush Mountain, near Roanoke, VA, (where I was born).

He was an example of how one can commit a life to serving others.

Looking at our everyday life, awards are also given to exceptional civilians. Probably the highest of those is the Presidential Medal of Freedom. This award is given to recognize individuals who have made an especially meritorious contribution to the security or national interests of the United States, to world peace, or to cultural or other significant public or private endeavors.

Many cities and local communities also honor outstanding citizens in their respective areas.

Getting back to the collegiate world, honorary degrees are usually conferred as a way of respecting a distinguished person’s contributions to a specific field, or to society in general. The degree that most hear about  is the Doctorate degree, mainly, Doctor of Philosophy. Since this is an honorary degree, when one uses that in a “signature”, it is expected that it be marked with “(Hon.)” or “h.c.”, to signify that it  is not “scholastically earned”.

Now, that brings up an interesting discussion; the trend of the past few decades of “schools” that are set up to, for a fee, bestow Masters or Doctorate degrees on their “students” after a very minimal or token period and limited study, usually by video sessions at their home. Some of these schools have an “on campus” graduation ceremony (in a church sanctuary or civic center, rented for the occasion).  I have attended these types of gatherings where hundreds of “students” walk onto the stage when their names are called and are given a document. They had never been to the “campus” before!

With a few hundred dollars and viewing “self-grading” videos ,YOU can get a doctorate!!  How many of us have received many, many of these “spam” e-mail and USPS-mailed offers? As a minister, I received a dozen or so per DAY until I included them in my spam filter. This really appeals to the alter ego yet many people I know are gullible enough to buy them!  Yes, I know I JUST lost a number of friends and relatives but this is how I see this trend.

I know a number of  ”Rev. Dr. so-and-so” who have bought their doctorates and even paid an “offering” to some church or ministry to ordain them as ministers! How naive can one get?

The obverse side of this (the Spiritual side) is that they are being deceptive through buying themselves into the ministry AND the alter ego of being a “Doctor”. The truth is: Would Jesus Do That? I have always understood that one is “called by God” into the ministry, balanced either by study or by a “supernatural anointing” to be His representative, His teacher, here on earth. There are no credentials of man that can supersede the call of God!

If you earned a degree by valid, hard work after years in the books, I honor your efforts. Likewise, for an honorary degree. But, if you need to have that title without the valid work that is required, that is no more than “sounding brass or a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1). You have earned your recognition and your reward. A doctorate in Heaven probably won’t get you any closer to the throne than the little old “non-credentialed” lady who ministered to her neighbors across the clothesline!

If honor is earned and justified, honor is recognized. But let’s keep the honoring where it belongs, on a high, “respectable” plane!