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The first Congressional Medal of Honor for heroism in the fighting in Afghanistan was awarded to a USNavy SEAL. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski related Lt Michael Murphy's exploits last week. ABC and CBS assigned that task to their anchors as the medal was posthumously presented to Murphy's parents by President George Bush. Murphy was killed during a secret commando mission in the mountains of the Hindu Kush during the summer of 2005. His patrol stumbled across goat herders who alerted a local militia: a hundred-or-so fighters attacked the four sailors. ABC's Charles Gibson described the lieutenant's selflessness: "Murphy knew the only hope for his men's survival was to radio for back-up so he crawled out from cover into enemy fire--the only way to make phone contact." The call was to little avail, CBS' Katie Couric told us, in her pre-taped American Heroes profile (Couric herself took the day off with Russ Mitchell substituting as anchor): "A Chinook helicopter flew to their aid but it was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing all 16 on board." Murphy and two of his comrades were killed, too. The lone survivor, Marcus Luttrell, told Couric how he crawled into the side of a nearby cliff, wounded in the legs, and was rescued six days later.
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