THE WALL OF FACES

Some may think you are forgotten
Though on earth you are no more
But in our memory you are with us
As you always were before….

Information about Lieutenant (Junior Grade) Thomas Edgar Murray, USNA 1962, from the U.S. Naval Academy Alumni Association Virtual Memorial Wall is at this website link/URL:

https://usnamemorialhall.org/index.php/THOMAS_E._MURRAY,_LTJG,_USN

Remembered on what would've been his 82nd birthday - 15 February 2021.

Dear LTJG Thomas Murray, Thank you for your service as an Unrestricted Line Officer - Pilot on the USS MIDWAY. Saying thank you isn't enough, but it is from the heart. It is the 10th Day of Christmas, Merry Christmas & Happy New Year. Time passes quickly. Please watch over America, it stills needs your strength, courage and faithfulness, especially now. Rest in peace with the angels.

On October, 28 1965, LTJG Thomas E. Murray was KIA when his Douglas A-4C Skyhawk (serial number 148596) crashed astern of the USS Midway after a combat mission. The USS Ingersoll (DD-652) whaleboat recovered the pilot who was pronounced dead by the Ingersoll's medical officer. There is a personal account for this incident from Johnny Hale: “I was flying rescue air crewman onboard the Midway in 1965. I pulled a dead pilot from the water who had ejected on landing. I believe this is the crash of the A-4C 148596 28 October 1965. The pilot's name was LTJG T.E. Murray. He was coming in for a landing, about 200 feet from the water when his plane inverted and he ejected. When I got to him he was face down in the water and with his chute deployed around him. I turned him over on his back and pulled his oxygen mask off and blood was in it. I couldn't get him out of his chute because when I turned him loose he started to sink. His raft popped up and I inflated it, got in and held on to Mr. Murray until a boat from the destroyer got to us. We got him back to the Midway and the doctor told me he had a concussion, crushed chest, and two broken legs. His helmet had a big piece out of it and his visor cover was broken in half.” (Narrative by Johnny Hale) [Taken from a4skyhawk.org]

Dear LTJG Thomas Edgar Murray, sir

As an American, I would like to thank you for your service and for your sacrifice made on behalf of our wonderful country. The youth of today could gain much by learning of heroes such as yourself, men and women whose courage and heart can never be questioned.

May God allow you to read this, and may He allow me to someday shake your hand when I get to Heaven to personally thank you. May he also allow my father to find you and shake your hand now to say thank you; for America, and for those who love you.

With respect, Sir

Curt Carter