World War II Honoree

Richard Joseph Murphy, Jr.

Branch of Service

U.S. Marine Corps

Hometown

Silver Spring, Maryland

Honored By

Orville L. Kline

Rank: Staff Sergeant. On September 23, 1940, he was inducted into the United States Marine Corps from Maryland. His boot camp training took place with the Third Recruit Battalion, Training Regiment; Marine Corps Base Parris Island, South Carolina. Later he completed his Marine Combat Training at Camp Geiger, North Carolina. Served as a Squad Leader with the Second Marine Division in the Northwestern Pacific Theater of Operations, assigned to a Weapons Company, Headquarters Battalion and Sixth Marine Regiment. His division participated in the amphibious assault against the Imperial Japanese Army forces on the island of Saipan. Killed in action Friday, June 15, 1944 on the first day of the invasion, and buried in the U.S. armed forces battlefield cemetery on Saipan. After the cessation of hostilities with Japan, the 604th Quartermaster Graves Registration Company, Quartermaster Corps conducted recovery operations on Saipan. His remains were recovered, but could not be identified, and were interred as an unknown in the Manila American Cemetery, Philippine Islands. In February of 2017, a recovery team from the Defense Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency in Hawaii disinterred the unknown from the Manila cemetery. The remains were transferred to their Honolulu laboratory for analysis, where he was identified. His name is permanently inscribed in the tablets of the missing, memorialized at the Honolulu National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, ‘Punchbowl’ Hawaii. The remains of this Marine were interred with Military Honors, December 1, 2018 at the Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Silver Spring, Maryland. This American Patriot was awarded the Purple Heart posthumously, for his ultimate sacrifice in defense of his country.