After the war, Audie Murphy went on to star in 44 different movies.
My wife and I were driving through Greenville, Texas, and found ourselves peckish. As we poked around for a fast food joint, we came across a fairly non-descript building situated in a wide grassy space. What caught my eye was the enormous statue out front wielding a German MG42 belt-fed machinegun like he meant it.
American presidents get sprawling libraries erected in their honor. Vapid media personalities who contribute little more than chaos find themselves ensconced in palatial digs suitable for the sultans of old. CEOs who risk nothing more than their reputations are paid enough to support a small West African nation state. And then — there was Audie Murphy.
Audie Murphy was the most highly decorated American soldier who ever drew breath. He contributed more to the cause of freedom than every movie star, social media influencer, captain of industry, General, Admiral and politician combined. This was his museum.
The facility is of modest size but is beautifully executed. Half of the place is dedicated to local history, while the other half orbits around Greenville’s favorite son. If ever you are in the neighborhood you’ll regret not checking it out.
I arrived about an hour before closing and, aside from a single museum staff member, had the place to myself. My bride broke out her oils and set up outside for a quick plein air landscape. I soon lost myself in the story of a truly great American.
The Audie Murphy Museum in Greenville, Texas, is full of cool-guy
stuff like this WWI-vintage MG08 Maxim machinegun.
It is a timeless drive for young warriors to take mementos of their military service.
Audie Murphy brought this German helmet home from the war in Europe.
Origin Story
The seventh of 12 children born to a sharecropper family, Audie Leon Murphy was a small man with a big heart. Abandoned by his father as a child, Audie’s mother died when he was 16. Murphy dropped out of school in fifth grade to pick cotton and keep his family from starving. Along the way he ran a rifle to help keep meat on the table.
Incensed by the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, Audie tried to enlist only to be rejected by the Army, Navy and Marines. The boy’s older sister falsified his birthdate so he could try again. On his enlistment physical, Murphy stood 5’5″ tall and weighed 112 lbs.
During infantry training, Audie passed out in the heat and his commander tried to have him reclassified as a cook. Private Murphy was having none of it. Through sheer force of will the young man survived his training and found himself deployed to North Africa for Operation Torch.
Audie Murphy was ultimately recognized as the most highly decorated American soldier in history.
This big guy with a big gun is what caught Doc Dabb’s eye as
he was passing through Greenville, Texas, enroute to Dallas.
War Ages A Man
Murphy helped take Sicily as part of Patton’s Seventh Army. It was here Audie Murphy took his first life. He later observed, “I have seen war as it actually is, and I do not like it. But I will go on fighting.”
Once on the Italian mainland, Murphy’s unit was moving along the Volturno River. Murphy along with two comrades unexpectedly came under fire from a German machinegun. One of his buddies died on the spot. Enraged, Murphy charged the enemy machinegun nest armed with a Thompson submachine gun and killed all five Germans manning the gun.
By September of 1944, Murphy was one of only three survivors of his original Infantry company not killed or removed due to wounds. Along the way, Murphy was shot in the hip and caught a piece of shrapnel in his heel. He was also wracked with malaria throughout.
By late January 1945, Murphy had been awarded a battlefield commission. While recovering from fresh wounds to both legs, his decimated unit was attacked by half a dozen German panzers and hundreds of dismounted troops. The young officer sent his soldiers to safety and advanced alone to a burning American tank destroyer.
Lt. Murphy mounted the flaming vehicle and fired his carbine until he ran out of ammunition. He then got behind the 50-caliber machinegun. Between running the Big Fifty and adjusting artillery, he singlehandedly kept the enemy tanks and infantry at bay for more than an hour. When finally he left the field, he did so at a slow walk. He later claimed he was so exhausted he didn’t care if they killed him or not. For this action, Lt. Murphy earned the Medal of Honor. He was 19 years old.
Audie Murphy received every award for valor the U.S. Army offered along with decorations from both France and Belgium. After he came home, Murphy slept with a loaded handgun under his pillow. Like so many of those old heroes, he struggled to leave the horrors of war behind. However, his fame did translate into a 21-year career as an actor, poet and a song writer. Toward the end, he fell upon hard times but steadfastly refused to appear in cigarette or alcohol commercials so as not to set a poor example for young people.
In May of 1971, Murphy was a passenger in a twin-engine Aero Commander 680 when it slammed into the side of a mountain Near Roanoke, Va., in foul weather. He was 46 at the time of his death. Murphy’s grave is the second-most visited at Arlington National Cemetery after JFK.
Where most Medal of Honor gravestones are embellished with gold leaf, Murphy insisted his be left unadorned like that of a common soldier. It still lists his birth year as 1924 in keeping with the prevarication originally attested to by his sister. What a stud.
After 11 years of sustained conflict in Afghanistan, the “Sky Soldiers” of 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment continued to contribute and sacrifice towards the Global War on Terror.
By the way, they were also the Unit that took back the Island of Corregidor ftom the Japs in 1945 during WWII. By parachuting on to the Island against some pretty stiff Japanese Oppostion. Grumpy
Project Excelsior was a series of parachute jumps made by Joseph Kittinger of the United States Air Force in 1959 and 1960 from helium balloons in the stratosphere. The purpose was to test the Beaupre multi-stage parachute system intended to be used by pilots ejecting from high altitude.
Medal of Honor, Major Richard Ira Bong, United States Army Air Forces
Major Richard Ira Bong, Air Corps, United States Army, Leyte, 12 December 1944. Major Bong is wearing the Medal of Honor. (U.S. Air Force)
17 December 1944: Major Richard Ira Bong, United States Army Air Corps, flying a Lockheed P-38 Lighting over San José on the Island of Mindoro, Commonwealth of the Philippines, shot down an enemy Nakajima Ki-43 Hayabusa (Allied reporting name, “Oscar”).
This was Bong’s 40th confirmed aerial victory and made him the leading American fighter ace of World War II. He is officially credited with 40 aircraft destroyed, 8 probably destroyed and 7 damaged.
Five days earlier, 12 December, during a ceremony at an American airfield on the Island of Leyte, Philippine Islands, General Douglas MacArthur, United States Army, had presented Major Bong the Medal of Honor.
An Associated Press reporter quoted the General:
“Of all military attributes, that one which arouses the greatest admiration is courage. It is the basis of all successful military ventures. our forces possess it to a high degree and various awards are provided to show the public’s appreciation. The Congress of the United States has reserved to itself the honor of decorating those amongst all who stand out as the bravest of the brave. It’s this high and noble category, Bong, that you now enter as I pin upon your tunic the Medal of Honor. Wear it as a symbol of the invincible courage you have displayed so often in mortal combat. My dear boy, may a merciful God continue to protect you is the constant prayer of your commander in chief.”
[On 18 December 1944, Douglas MacArthur was promoted to General of the Army, a five-star rank held by only nine other U.S. military officers. General MacArthur was the son of a Medal of Honor recipient, and had himself been twice nominated for the Medal for his actions during the occupation of Vera Cruz (1914) and the Meuse-Argonne Offensive (1918). He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his defense of the Philippines, 1941–42.]
Richard Bong’s citation reads:
MEDAL OF HONOR
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pleasure in presenting the Medal of Honor to Major (Air Corps) Richard Ira Bong, United States Army Air Forces, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action above and beyond the call of duty while serving with the 49th Fighter Group, V Fighter Command, Fifth Air Force, in action in the Southwest Pacific area from 10 October to 15 November 1944.
Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and in the Leyte area of the Philippines. His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down eight enemy airplanes during this period.
General Orders: War Department, General Orders No. 90, December 8, 1944
Action Date: October 10 – November 15, 1944
Service: Army Air Forces
Rank: Major
Regiment: 49th Fighter Group, V Fighter Command
Division: 5th Air Force.
Major Bong flew a number of different Lockheed P-38s in combat. He is most associated, though, with P-38J-15-LO 42-103993, which he named Marge after his fiancée, Miss Marjorie Ann Vattendahl, a school teacher from Poplar, Wisconsin.
Richard Bong had flown 146 combat missions. General George C. Kenney, commanding the Far East Air Forces, relieved him from combat and ordered that he return to the United States. He was assigned to test new production P-80 Shooting Stars jet fighters being built at Lockheed Aircraft Corporation’s Burbank, California plant.
On 6 August 1945, the fuel pump of the new P-80 Bong was flying failed just after takeoff. The engine failed from fuel starvation and the airplane crashed into a residential area of North Hollywood, California. Major Richard Ira Bong was killed.
George Patton was arguably the most audacious general the United States has ever produced. However, that guy was a bit nuts. He was not of the same caliber as Major White.
Soldiers do curious things for some of the dumbest reasons. Referring to the Medal of Honor, General George Patton once opined, “I’d give my immortal soul for that little blue ribbon.” That is objectively insane.
I never met an inspiring soldier who chased awards. The true heroes I have encountered were, to a man, humble. Jack Lucas threw himself on two grenades at once in the opening salvoes of the invasion of Iwo Jima, rightfully earning the Medal of Honor in the process. When this indestructible Marine found out I was a veteran, he thanked me for my service. I wasn’t worthy to polish that man’s boots.
Like others of his rarefied caliber, Jack deferred the glory to those who did not come home. I am ever amazed that, as a people, we can create such men as these. Of all the silly baubles that drive soldiers to ridiculous heights, be they funny hats, uniform patches, or scraps of colored ribbon, none should be so dreaded as the Purple Heart. To earn that medal, you’ve got to bleed.
George Washington instituted the first Purple Heart back in the 18th century.
The Purple Heart
George Washington thought that one up. The award was first called the Badge of Military Merit, and it was established on 7 August 1782. The medal bears Washington’s likeness even today. Washington only presented three of the awards, though he empowered his subordinates to deliver more. The Badge of Military Merit then languished unused until 1927.
While several military men worked on the project, it finally came to fruition under the leadership of Douglas MacArthur. The specific details of the modern Purple Heart were designed by an Army heraldic specialist named Elizabeth Will. The finalized award was formally resurrected on 22 February 1932, the 200th anniversary of Washington’s birth.
Douglas MacArthur was the US military’s first recipient of the Purple Heart medal.
The Purple Heart was awarded retroactively for wounds received during World War 1. MacArthur himself was the first recipient. It was standardized across all services in December of 1942. However, the Purple Heart is a military award no sensible person covets.
A Circuitous Path
Born on October 27, 1910, William Gail White was the youngest of three children born to a Presbyterian minister and his schoolteacher wife. White attended High School in Bakersfield, California. From the very beginning, he wanted to be a soldier. White volunteered for a summer training program called the Citizens Military Training Camp (CMTG) and was designated honor trainee. Upon graduating in 1929, White began competing as part of the Ninth Corps Area CMTG Rifle team.
A superb marksman, White was recommended for a commission as a Second Lieutenant, but he was too young. He enrolled in the San Jose Teachers College in 1930 but dropped out and enlisted in the US Marine Corps. In the summer of 1930, White was assigned to the USS West Virginia as part of its Marine detachment.
William White was a gifted marksman. He set a Marine Corps record with the M-2 .50-caliber machine gun.
Exactly The Right Type of Person
White excelled as a Marine. He set the Marine Corps record with the Browning M2 machinegun, scoring 396 out of 400 on the 1,000-inch range. After eleven years as a Jarhead, William White left the Marines for civilian life. He worked for Shell Oil until 1941. However, with war approaching, White enlisted again, this time as an Army Private at age 31. He was assigned to the 32nd Infantry Regiment of the 7th Division stationed at Fort Ord, California. During one training mission in California, White crossed the Salinas River alone on an inflatable air mattress to gather intelligence on enemy dispositions. This earned him the nickname, “The Salinas River Sea Serpent.”
By the summer of 1944, White had indeed become a commissioned officer. Now 34, he was assigned as the Executive Officer for the 3rd Battalion, 330th Infantry Regiment, 83d Infantry Division. He later commanded his own battalion. White made Major 25 months to the day after enlisting as a Private. Suffice to say, it takes considerably longer than that today. By late June, White was moving into Carentan, France, to relieve the 101st Airborne after they assaulted Normandy.
William Gail White Attracted Pain
The Browning Automatic Rifle was a boat anchor to hump. When Major White snatched one up during the hedgerow fighting in Normandy, its owner was a bit irked.
Major William Gail White was utterly fearless in combat. While advancing through the accursed Norman hedgerows, White struck out at a run, rallying his men to follow. Throwing himself onto the far berm, he spotted a pair of German machinegun positions sited to produce a crossfire in the next open field. The next American to arrive was a BAR man. White did not feel that he had time to direct the man’s fire, so he snatched up the BAR himself.
He then neutralized both positions before swapping magazines and striking out with the heavy gun for the next berm. Meanwhile, the poor BAR gunner who had lugged the massive weapon throughout training and the landings in France scurried behind shouting, “But Major, when do I get to use it?” White responded, “Never mind when you get to use it. Throw me another damn magazine…”
Normandy in the summer of 1944 was a dangerous place. White and his unit were facing the 17th SS Panzergrenadiers along with elements of the 5th and 6th Fallschirmjager Regiments. These elite troops fought fanatically for every yard of French dirt. On 5 July, Major White was hit in the chest by a 9mm round fired from a German MP40 submachinegun. This bullet struck him a glancing blow, blooding him badly without penetrating anything vital. Later that same day he caught a grenade fragment to his forehead. Those two injuries bought him two Purple Hearts in a single day.
William White became known as the Mad Major for his tenacity in combat.
Major White Kept Collecting Bullets
In the next forty-eight hours, Major White was wounded three more times. He was first struck in the shoulder by a piece of shrapnel from an artillery round. What put him down, however, was a bullet along with grenade fragments that synergistically shredded his forearm.
These wounds, his fifth and sixth, physically removed a substantial portion of his forearm and rendered him unconscious. Three inches’ worth of bone was visible when they evacuated him. He awoke to, “The face of the most beautiful blonde angel he had ever seen.” The exhausted Army nurse did her best to clean his battered body and brought him something to eat. Despite his being declared a critical surgical case, White still had to wait three days for space in a crowded operating theater.
Army surgeons reconstructed his forearm as best they could and covered the wound with a skin graft from his thigh. White later joked, “Every time my leg itches I have to scratch my arm.” However, the damage to his forearm muscles was severe, preventing him from using a weapon. This should have been his ticket back to the Z.I. (Zone of the Interior—Stateside).
The German Walther P38 was a radically advanced combat handgun for its day. Operating the long stiff double-action trigger on the gun gave Major William White a goal as he recovered from a fearsome arm injury.
Not Done Fighting
Major William Gail White still felt he had more war left to fight. When evacuated he had stashed a captured Walther P38 pistol in his gear. The hospital staff had stored the German weapon in their supply room. White retrieved it and spent hours trying to squeeze the double-action trigger. When finally he could reliably activate the weapon, White felt he could return to his unit. He subsequently went AWOL and caught a ride back to the continent from England.
White tried to find his old unit, but this was a chaotic time. While fighting as a replacement in Luxembourg he was showered in fragments from yet another German hand grenade. That was Purple Heart number seven.
This is a German Panzerkampfwagen Mk IV. Major William White took out two of these tanks himself toward the end of World War 2.
As Tough As They Come
We lack the space to do this man justice. White was captured by the Germans but escaped, liberating another fourteen Americans in the process. This earned him the Silver Star. On 10 December 1944, White earned his second Silver Star during combat in Strauss, Germany. This action saw him eliminate three enemy machine gun positions, two Pzkfpw Mk IV tanks, and two self-propelled guns while capturing 31 German prisoners. Along the way, he caught a burst of machine gun fire to the belly. That was his eighth Purple Heart.
As a physician, this is tough to imagine. White was evacuated to England for a major belly surgery and colostomy. He subsequently crashed on the operating table. The surgeons had the chaplain administer the last rites, yet he miraculously recovered.
At the end of the war, Major William White, shown here on the right, struck out alone into enemy territory and made contact with Russian units advancing from the east.
Major William Gail White: Back At It
After less than a month, White had his colostomy reversed. Two days after that he slipped out of the hospital and caught a C47 back to the war zone yet again. 48 hours before he had been pooping in a bag. Good Lord, what a man.
While fighting around the Elbe River, Major White was wounded a ninth time, his last before the German capitulation. However, this shot-up old hero wasn’t quite done. He later deployed yet again for the war in Korea.
By now White was more than 40 years old. During one engagement in Korea, communist forces shot the antenna off of the radio he was carrying. Another bullet also took off his cap. He later counted six bullet holes in his parka. Soon after, while serving as an advisor to a South Korean special forces unit, White made a one-round confirmed kill on a running North Korean soldier at 900 yards over open sights using an M1 Garand rifle.
William White earned the Purple Heart medal ten times.
White was eventually shot through the right chest with a Chicom rifle round. This was his tenth and final wound. Despite lots of surgery and a laborious recovery, the man still would not die. He subsequently went on to complete Airborne school and serve as a Ranger instructor. William White eventually retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.
The Rest of the Story
The morality of employing two atomic bombs to end the war in the Pacific has been debated ever since the bomb bay doors opened on the Enola Gay back in August 1945. However, it is a historical fact that these two bombs ultimately saved countless lives on both sides by negating the need for an amphibious invasion of the Japanese home islands.
The Purple Hearts that are awarded today were all produced during World War 2.
During WW2, the US government manufactured 1,506,000 Purple Heart medals. Most of these were planned for use in the aftermath of Operation Downfall, the invasion of Japan. After the war, nearly 500,000 remained in storage. Even accounting for those that were lost, stolen, or wasted, as of 2000, the national stockpile still stood at around 120,000. The Purple Heart medals that are awarded to service personnel today are all more than 75 years old.
Lieutenant Colonel William Gail White, the frag magnet, finally died of natural causes on 6 April 1985. He was 74 years old. White was interred at Maplewood Cemetery in Kinston, North Carolina. Eventually, old age did what the Wehrmacht and the communist Chinese could not. Wow, what a stud.
On May 2, 1945, he was assigned to a rifle company of the 5th Marines during the invasion of Okinawa. That day, the 5th Marines were pushing uphill towards a ridge against determined Japanese resistance. The slope was strewn with Marine casualties, and Corpsman Bush moved unceasingly among them rendering aid despite the withering fire all around him.
When the attack passed over the crest of the ridge, he moved up to the top of the slope to aid a wounded Marine officer. A Japanese counterattack swept over the ridge just as he began administering blood plasma to his patient.
As the Japanese approached, Corpsman Bush gallantly held up the plasma bottle with one hand and fired a pistol at the Japanese with the other. Then he grabbed a carbine and killed six advancing Japanese. He suffered several serious wounds himself, including the loss of an eye.
He remained guarding his “officer patient” until the enemy were repulsed. Then, according to the official citation, he “valiantly refus[ed] medical treatment for himself until his officer patient had been evacuated…”
The weapons used by the Tomb Guard are more than just for show. These weapons are fully functional and are kept ready for use at all times. The weapon inspection conducted prior to the new Sentinel assuming the post, is a real inspection.
Over the years there have been many different types of weapons used by the Tomb Guards. The changes in weapons reflect the changes in the Army, however each weapon system is picked for good reasons.
The weapons that have been used at the Tomb are broken into three different groups:
Rifles
M1903
M1 Garand
M14
Bayonets
M1905
M1942
M6
Pistols
1911 .45 ACP
M-9 Beretta
SIG Sauer P320 M17
M1903 Springfield Rifle
Rifle, Cal. .30-06, M1903 Series (1903). The Springfield M1903, a bolt-action rifle, was the standard issue rifle used by the Army from 1903 thru 1936, when it began to be replaced by the new issue M1 Garand. But it remained in use in many units up until 1943, when the Garand began arriving in large numbers. The M1903 used the .30-06 standard military cartridge in five-round magazines. The M1903 was an accurate weapon and was also used as a Sniper Rifle. It remains in use today as a ceremonial rifle for many different organizations.
M1 Garand
The M1 was designed by John C. Garand, and was the standard issue military rifle used by the U.S. Army from 1936 to 1957. The M1 was one of the first semi-automatic rifles to see action in combat. It offered a great improvement in fire power over the bolt-action M1903 series rifle it replaced. It was rugged, reliable, and tolerant to the abuses of use in the field. The rifle used .30-06 cal. cartridges in eight-round clips. The rifle was used by LTG George S. Patton, Jr., who said:
“In my opinion, the M1 Rifle is the greatest battle implement ever devised.”
M14 Rifle
(Rifle, 7.62mm, M14 series)
Seeking a lightweight replacement for the M1 Garand and the M1918A2 BAR, the Army selected the M14 rifle in 1957. The M14 was basically a product improved M1 Garand. The M14 has an effective range of 500 yards (460m). The M14 uses a standard NATO 7.62mm cartridge in a 20-round magazine. The M14 was the standard Army infantry rifle, until replaced by the mass fielding of the M16 5.56mm rifle in 1966-1967. The M14 was also converted into a Sniper Rifle (M21).
The M14 is the standard ceremonial weapon used by the 3d U.S. Infantry (The Old Guard) today, and is the current weapon carried by Tomb Guards.
Technical Manual description: a lightweight, air-cooled, gas operated, magazine fed, shoulder weapon, used primarily for semi automatic or fully automatic fire. (TM 9-1005-223-10)
M1905 Bayonet
Mission
Defeat the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Also used as a general field and utility knife.
Entered Army Service
M1905 for WWI
Description and Specifications
The M1942 was designed as the edged weapon for both the Springfield 1903 series and the M1 Garand Rifle.
M1905
Blade length (prior to 1942):
16.00 in
Blade length (after 1942):
10.00 in
M1942 Bayonet
Mission
Defeat the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Also used as a general field and utility knife.
Entered Army Service
M1942 for WWII
Description and Specifications
The M1942 was designed as the edged weapon for the M1 Garand Rifle.
M1942
Blade length:
16.00 in
M6 Bayonet
Mission
Defeat the enemy in hand-to-hand combat. Also used as a general field and utility knife.
Entered Army Service
M6 (1957)
Description and Specifications
The M6 bayonet-knife is used as a bayonet on the M14 series rifle and as a hand weapon.
M6
Blade length:
6.75 in
Total length:
11.5 in
1911 .45 ACP
(Colt-Browning United States Government Model of 1911 .45 automatic pistol)
The 1911 was designed to comply with the requirements of the US Army, which, during its campaign against the Moros in Philippines, had seen its trusty .38 revolver to be incapable of stopping attackers. An Ordnance Board headed by COL John T. Thomson (inventor of the Thomson submachine gun) and COL Louis A. La Garde, had reached the conclusion that the Army needed a .45 caliber cartridge, to provide adequate stopping power. In the meantime, J. Browning who was working for Colt, had already designed an “autoloader pistol,” around a cartridge similar to contemporary .38 Super (dimension-wise). When the Army announced its interest in a new handgun, Browning re-engineered this handgun to accommodate a .45″ diameter cartridge of his own design (with a 230gr. FMJ (Full Metal Jacket) bullet), and submitted the pistol to the Army for evaluation.
The Colt Model 1911 was slightly improved in early 1920’s when the flat mainspring housing was replaced with an arched one, a shorter hammer spur was used, a short trigger was made standard as well as a longer grip safety. The new model was named Colt M-1911 A1 Government Model. In this form, the gun was produced during the remaining years until
WWII, when military requirements were met by production of M-1911 by several firearms manufacturers such as Ithaca, Remington-Rand, Union Switch etc. Several thousand of this firearm were produced during the war period. ACP stands for “Automatic Colt Pistol.”
M-9 Beretta 9mm
(Beretta 92F)
A variation of the world famous semi-automatic Italian military handgun. This model with modified trigger guard to suit a two-handed grip and extended base to the magazine, was the service weapon of the US Army, Navy, Air Force, and Coast Guard.
SIG SAUER P320 M17 9mm
October 11, 2018, SIG SAUER presented the M17 to the U.S. Army’s 3rd U.S. Infantry Regiment (The Old Guard) for the Tomb Guard Sentinels.
The M17 Tomb of the Unknown Pistols are unique M17 pistols that were created using the same specifications for the U.S. Army’s M17 Modular Handgun System. The ceremonial pistols are 9mm striker-fired pistols with a non-railed aluminum grip module, stainless steel slide, wood grip inserts, a 21-round magazine, and features the same optic cut as specified by the MHS contract, front night sight, removable rear plate, and black controls. The pistols also feature a high polish to withstand the inclement weather while the Tomb Sentinels stand guard.
The unique distinguishing features for the M17 Tomb of the Unknown Pistols include:
Pistol Names: each of the four pistols bears the name of Silence, Respect, Dignity, or Perseverance and is featured on the dust cover. Dignity and Perseverance represent “The Sentinel’s Creed,” and Silence and Respect represent the request to the public by Arlington National Cemetery when visiting the Tomb of the Unknown, and during the Changing of the Guard;
Custom Wood Grips: in 1921 the chosen Unknown was transported to the United States of America aboard the USS Olympia. The custom wood grips are made with wood from the USS Olympia and include the crest of the 3rd Guard, Tomb of the Unknown Soldier identification badge inset;
Cocking Serrations: XXI cocking serrations are engraved on the slide to signify the twenty-one steps it takes for the Tomb Sentinels to walk by the Tomb of the Unknowns and the military honor of a 21 Gun Salute;
Sight Plate: an engraved impression of the Greek Figures featured on the east panel of the Tomb – Peace, Victory, and Valor – are featured on the sight plate;
Sights: a glass insert made with marble dust from the Tomb of the Unknown fills the sights of the ceremonial pistols;
Engraved Magazines: the 21-round magazines feature an aluminum base plate engraved with the names of the Greek figures featured on the Tomb of the Unknown – Peace, Victory, and Valor – and include a name plate on the bottom of the magazine engraved with the Tomb Sentinel badge number.
Serial Numbers: the pistols are serialized with a unique set of serial numbers that incorporate items of significance to the Old Guard: “LS” represents line six of the Sentinels’ Creed, “My standard will remain perfection; “02JUL37” to signify the first 24-hour guard posted at the Tomb of the Unknown on July 3, 1937; “21” to signify the 21 steps it takes the Tomb Sentinels to walk by the Tomb of the Unknown, and the military honor of a 21 Gun Salute.
Historical note about the artwork: it was damaged in the attack on the Pentagon September 11th, 2001. But was repaired and remains a valuable part of the Marine Corps Combat Art Collection.
After the war, Audie Murphy went on to star in 44 different movies.
The Audie Murphy Museum in Greenville, Texas, is full of cool-guy
It is a timeless drive for young warriors to take mementos of their military service.
After 11 years of sustained conflict in Afghanistan, the “Sky Soldiers” of 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503rd Infantry Regiment continued to contribute and sacrifice towards the Global War on Terror.
