HERO The Life and Death of Audie Murphy
HERO The Life and Death of Audie Murphy Charles Whiting Scarborough House Publishers 1990 Chelsea, Michigan 48118 Charles Whiting is a leading historian of World War II. ... He wrote this book, HERO The Life and Death of Audie Murphy, to tell the story of one of the many heroes of the war. This book tells the story of the most decorated soldier of World War II, Aduie Leon Murphy. ... He wants the readers to understand the life of Audie Murphy and the real price he paid to become a soldier and a hero for the United States. ... He wants all to understand the price a person has to pay to become a hero in war. To help the readers understand the price a soldier has to pay to become a hero, Charles Whiting begins by comparing the stories of two famous young soldiers of World War II. The first is Audie Murphy, who before he could even vote, had already won all the citations and decorations, including every medal for valor that America gives to its soldiers. ... He was sentenced to death by firing squad. ... This execution was just five days after, and 20 miles away from, the time and place where Audie Leon Murphy would win his Congressional Medal of Honor for bravery. Charles Whiting states that at first there appears to be no possible connection between these two young soldiers, one a great hero and one a coward. ... Eddie Slovik paid with his young life at the hands of the firing squad and Audie Murphy paid with a tragic life of gambling, drugs and mental suffering for over 25 years after the war until his tragic death in a plane crash on May 23, 1971. Charles Whiting’s book of Audie Murphy’s life shows us that “the war that they participated produced not heroes or cowards, but merely victims”. Charles Whitings book vividly demonstrates the price a person has to pay to be a soldier and a hero. Charles Whiting does a good job of taking the reader back through American history and the life of Audie Murphy to show what type of a man he was. He shows Audie Murphy’s difficult life as a child growing up as one of eleven children of a poor sharecropper family in Texas. He reveals that even as a young boy he would daydream of being a hero in the battlefield. Later in life Audie Murphy would comment that “the dream was my one escape from a grimly realistic world”. As a young boy Audie Murphy became a good hunter. ... When asked years later how he became such a good shot with a rifle Audie commented, “Simple, if I missed, we didn’t eat”.