Report from Santa Fe; Raymond Murphy and Hiroshi Miyamura

You Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by grants from U.S. West providing advanced telecommunication services to New Mexico homes and businesses and by the best western high mesa in your Santa Fe destination where sources on the high mesa serve Santa Fe style food at affordable prices. I'm Ernie Mose this is report from Santa Fe today another extra special show our guest

two members of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society we have four living recipients in New Mexico, Hiroshi Miyamura from Gallup, New Mexico, McKinley County and Raymond Murphy from Santa Fe in New Mexico I get it's going to be very hard for me you know to say Raymond and because it's it's I knew you in 1957 or you said you got to go see Hiroshi and then I left Gallup and came up from Gallup to Mexico and saw Murph so with the show today is with Hiroshi and Murph but two very dear friends over a long long time. First Murph let me start with you if I may in March there was going to be another meeting this is second major meeting from the National Society of the Congressional Medal of Honor recipients it's going to be in New Mexico and they're honoring one gentleman I want a little background on the affair itself if you can. Well it's called the Patriots Dinner now the Patriots Award is the Medal of Honor

Society's highest honor that they give to citizens who have contributed to the to our nation to community. Most of them have been on a national level but this is a more of a district and we haven't had one of these for a long time and the fact of only given about five on a district level so we're given this to Mr. Cours because of the contributions that the Cours family and the Cours Corporation has made not just to the Medal of Honor Society but to veterans in general through scholarships and all kinds of you find it hard to have a meeting of veterans anywhere state, local, national without Cours in there helping to make it a successful meeting. About how many members do we have now in the in the society? Well it's right at the 199-200 we have a little trouble keeping track of some of our members they kind of know mad and they move around so now and then we get surprised and lose

one but we believe the president Brady who you've had on an eye that somewhere in 190-202 we had and we had been in previous show with General Patrick Henry Brady, Major General Army retired and he had been in fact he had the action he took when he received the recipient of the Medal of Honor just by one month before I got into Vietnam was January 6 1968 when he was there and of course then I had Colonel Robert Scott I was he is I could say this without fear of contradiction the Scotty is getting more contankerous every year and he's more fun every year he really is just a marvelous marvelous person who would receive his medal for efforts in the second world war and we had Richard Rocco who is the co-chair with your mark on this putting this together and Richard had been in Vietnam.

I want to at this function in particular it is open for anyone in the public who would like to attend this and so anybody can can attend it I understand there may even be an artist they're going to have an artist show the night before and they've got some of the top veteran artists in that whole area not just from New Mexico but around the area so we're putting on the show the night on the 11th of March. Hershey and the years I've known you I've had people say to me they said do you know that if I say yes I've known him I go back a long long time you both you and and and Murph look younger now to me than you did 15 years ago I was treating you well you're taking good care of yourself I've had a couple of people ask me in fact one of the things I pointed out was that someone said how do you get to be a congressional medal of honor winner and I said you're not a winner you're recipient and it could be awful lucky one thing but a lot of people have asked me about it and for

a little background on yourself this is one of the shows I consider a golden treasure show in a way where they can see the person who is the recipient and it was during the second world war and that I received my medal you were Korea and Murph Korea also yeah well too for Korea that's right and Colonel Scott was for the World War II and that was in I believe his was in Japan at that time and one of the islands right and and then Richard was from the Vietnam War right take us back a little bit do you remember what year it was oh yes this was the night of April the 24th 1951 and we were told to hold the perimeter and we knew they were coming and we were south of the M. Jen River and when they crossed over they let us know they were crossing and coming because they just blew bugles and

made all kinds of noise to get us on edge I guess around midnight they set off our flares and so we knew they were just down the bottom we were stationed up on a big high mountain but our field of fire was to cover this draw like and once they tripped the flares when you were they were down there just short time we had a battle and they surrounded my position so I told the men to leave and I just cover their withdrawal and luckily they all made a back couple got wounded but I got wounded in the action and got captured like the boots now how long were you in it you were in the prisoner of war camp for 27 and a half months you know the furthest camp north of the Cree 30th parallel that's cold

up there very cold I had to when some of the people I've talked to and you know that have gone through the elsewhere in the country you know they forget the war I could yeah that our servicemen have in the mexico you know marvelous you know we have people I've mentioned names like Tommy for who is served in the battalion death march and in gallop I remember Eddie Youngker and we all remember cash scardor had been a banker from down silver cityway and they're the marvel and they were marvelous people cash passed away now Tommy is serving in the legislature but the war record here just cannot be beat of the American citizens what does the society mean to you Harshan what does society mean to me well I'm just happy to be a part of it to be able to say that I am an American to me that's the all that matter and I'm very grateful that I was born in this country and

I was never taught anything else this was my country and I had to participate in anything that had to do with defending the country. Murth why don't you take us back a little bit to career we had the date. Mine was February 3rd 1953 and it was in the kind of stagnant period when they were trying to get these truth talks taken care of try to get a no fire and it was very similar I believe to the World War One is kind of a trench warfare and there wasn't much activity at daytime most of us small units squads are very true even tuned at nighttime and I guess the higher ups in the United Nations or 8th Army whichever decided that we needed something to jog these truth talks loose and they decided that they would have a heavily reinforced

company raid on one of the strongest communist outposts over near the Imjoon River where Harshan was near Panjan and my company was the $10 million winner they were the ones selected to do the assault on this side of our post. And that's certainly the lottery you want and we purpose was to try to shake up the talks to try to naturally kill as many and get some prisoners and I was my petun was the exact evacuation petun of wounded the other two were the assault petun well by time I got up the top of the hill I knew there was something wrong because couldn't find any officers or any sergeants they were all wounded so all of a sudden I became a company commander and it took most of the day to get them back we lost 90 some about 18 KKI's and it was very fortunate to have given them the highest medal but I've always felt

that a group award because I had a tremendous number of great people that contributed to the syscus of the operation. With each passing year I find that for example when they had the dedication of the women's memorial this year in 1993 actually and there were people back there some people said I felt guilty because I didn't serve in combat as such and someone else said you're heroes or the man who obeys orders obeys the orders and you need for every eight if every man in combat you look usually at about 8 to 10 and 68 was mentioning to General Brady in 1968 it was one in eight except for New Mexico it was one in three that served in one in three in combat and out of that three I think there was one out of the three that ended

up a casualty you know during that period but the thing that I find interesting now is people are sharing a lot more for a long time the Korean veteran was almost forgotten. The Indian veteran and some people said oh you really need one memorial and my mother used to say there's room enough in the jar for everybody and I think there's still an awful lot that has to be written about the Korean conflict. Do you find this happening urgent? Yes I belong to this Korean war veterans association and the majority of the members are finally beginning to voice their opinion saying that we were the Fugurgaten soldiers and it's time that we should let the public know something about us and I think in time you'll hear more stories about what happened in Korea.

Murphy you've been very involved in veterans affairs and again this is something where you can't differentiate it's not it's not a time to be treating one group almost as if it's a minority as such you got to recognize all of them. How much progress are we making to take care of our veterans? I think we're doing very good of course I work for the veterans administration but I believe that we're following the motto of President Lincoln to take care of those who board the brand of the battle and their dependence and I think we're considering every aspect of our government I think we're doing good. We have the biggest hospital system in the world it's 172 hospitals. We have what used to be the second and third biggest insurance business. We have about fourth or fifth now because of deaths and stuff. We have the biggest cemetery system in the world. The GI Bill, the famous GI Bill that we're having our 50th anniversary when it was signed in 1943 is one of the greatest social events

that's ever happened in this country when you think of the people that have raised their standards through education that have been able to buy a home. The number one ambition of everybody to have their own home and if it hadn't been for the GI Bill. So I think overall there's always a room for improvement. You know I remember talking to my father and my real father was from this first world work and when they got out I think the land you'd land like in Florida and you got your train fare back to your hometown and $50 and that was it. You get off the son of son who got out there and he's still had their gas mask. I still remember scaring people with his gas mask in the basement. But that's a long way from there to what happened in the second world war and other changes as well. Most of the people I talk to like yourselves also are so dedicated. They're the ones who say we don't want war. There is no one in

my mind to my mind who feels stronger about staying out of war than the Congressional Medal of Honor when there's for example. Do you have any special message on that? I think the goal of every recipient that I know and I know most of them very well is that there never be another Medal of Honor and that's not because we want it harder to ourselves because we know the suffering that goes with, usually with it. So that would be our ambition that it just fade out and never have that we would have peace among men. I feel exactly the same way. Let's just hope there's never another award on that award it to anyone or have to be awarded. I mean we have the police actions again like we have the desert storm and again people come back and they say in any way as you can get out of the way up the dead. When they said police action I thought I was going to go over

there and give them a belly club and actually become a policeman but it's entirely different story when you get over there and I'm sure these little practices that are going on right now are a lot worse than we realize. Kind of Scott told me he said he's lucky. He said when I was there he said we just had the ham and he said it was he said thank heaven it wasn't as fancy as it got a little a little later on but he's he's great that right now. What do you do when you get together with this group? I mean the fraternity has to be something else. Very close. We're a very diverse cross the board. We have presidents like General Brady but we also have sergeants as president. There's no status in our society. Everybody's on the same level. A lot of disagreements but still a bond that you can just kind of. Now this man here talks about being an American he'll never talk about. There's

only been two Nesey congressional metal runners. One was posthumously and Italy and this man here and this man here won't tell her but his citation was kept top secret by the Pentagon for 27 months because they knew are they felt if it was released he'd be demonstrated in prison or work in. Yeah that was it's in that whole period or later on you know that when you when you look at that and say what you know how can we be sure these people will come back now. We forget that bad treatment didn't just happen again in any specific conflict you know it was something that affected almost everyone right. What's the future hope for the organization? Well they're getting up there in the years. We would like to have as many as possible with this meeting in March but some of them have problems they're agents and have a little trouble getting around. Eventually there will be the last one you know I hope someday. I actually I met the gentleman out here that

had been one of those who went up by the San Juan Hill with Teddy Roosevelt back about 25 or so about 30 years ago. You got the medal on it. Yeah and as it was interesting you know this spread on it's just just incredible. Mark tell us again and we have I believe and I haven't seen the final program yet. I think General Baca agent in General Baca is going to be the master of ceremonies at the banquet and with Mr. Curris is going to receive the Patriots award and fill us in a little more. Now that's the dates again. That's the 12th of March on a Saturday. The 11th of March on on a Friday will be the Yacht show at the Ramada Classic in Albuquerque and then on Sunday they're going to have a Matanza. It's about a pronounced right? Yeah. For the people who just take part in the ceremonies. So we're looking forward to a very enjoyable time, a very enjoyable reunion.

What about the rest of the year and what other functions were you have outside of this meeting? The only ones we really can count on was we're always invited to the inauguration and our buy we don't have an annual convention we have a buy annual and I think you remember we had the buy annual here in Albuquerque in 89 or four years ago. Yeah and it was one of our most successful ones. We had had a tremendous committee of about 50 some Albuquerques that just did a tremendous amount of work for two years on that. This one going to be a successful? We're sure counting. We're sure hoping counting. We're going to work on it. Okay. Hershey you've lived as long as I've known you know in McKinley County and Gough. I was born there in 1925. Still there? I mean I had in all those years I've known you. What was it like when you got back from Korea? Well it was something that I didn't expect. The welcoming that I got was something out of this world and I just didn't

know how to really cope with it. I'm not the type of person to be making any speeches or I couldn't really express my gratitude and happiness for being able to come back to Gough. Murphy did you come right back to Santa Fe? Well I'm originally from Pueblo Colorado but when I came back to the Korean War I had a brother who was kind of deeply involved in the community here in Santa Fe. I wonder who that would be. And I decided I wanted to get another degree so I went to graduate school in Massachusetts and did that and afterwards my brother interested me in coming into business with him here in Santa Fe. So I've been here 40 years. I feel hopefully I'm a native. I think the brother is referring to of course is Leo Murphy who reform a mayor of Santa Fe and a grand man really. Leo again is just one of our Santa Fe treasures, just a great great person. I'm

coming for the business because they show you how time flies. They're looking for an ice skating rink in Santa Fe now and you had the ice skating. We had one here one time. During those days I went out there during that time. I almost killed myself. I want to check on a couple of items for you. Do you are you surprised in a sense that some of the materials we see this day? For example someone said to me they were talking about things like Nape Home and the ancient R and Aronshire and Sutton. But I can remember it back to the first World War you know and my father was telling me about the things like you know the gas attacks. They had mustard gas during that period and those who had gone to France you know came back and and again there was very little done for them during that period and many didn't realize too much later what the what the effects of it of it were because

of your own background with the Veterans Administration. How is work progressing on that to make sure that the health of the veterans is taking care of? I think we're doing some good things we've just opened up a push within the last year trying to find more involved in the mustard gas not only in the First World War but in some of the testing of mustard gas that was done during the Second World War. We're out doing outreach trying to find people that might be are entitled to benefits for some of the things that we've made some mistakes you know we're human and I think the VA is trying to go back and correct some of these by compensating people for some of the problems that they have. One of the people who works with vet help and you've traveled with them a couple of days before we did this show, Roger Fleming. I think it's a good example of a very dedicated person and we have an additional problem now I think and we've had it before. People

forget about the, remember the March on Washington when they camped you know camping it's after the First World War when people camped outside the White House and such but we had the problem of the homeless these days among, first you have any feelings about that what we can do with what people can do to help more? Oh boy I don't know it's quite a problem. I don't know it's just going to take time to solve there are people that are willing to work and then again there's people that don't want to work. I've heard of instances where things that were donated to them they would just throw them away in the trash can. So it's hard to, going to be hard to distinguish who really needs a help and wants the help versus the ones that are just trying to get what they can out of it. I think it's quite a problem there. Right. I think it's a very serious problem Ernie and to go back to my brother

that you mentioned he was the first welfare director here in this state to have when they brought out food stamps and you know he's a Democrat he I considered him a conservative businessman and he told me after his four years there that the corruption and the problems in that was less than 10% but that small part and I'm not questioning the media it makes the front page and I think as far as the homeless the majority of them there is a need. I know that you've always had from where kids had hobos that followed the railroads and stuff but now I think with our modern fast-paced society there are some people that are following suit and crafts and they need some help. You know when you mention and it is something that becomes a media problem the person who drives up getting food stamps for example in a Cadillac it's the isolated case and not in as Leo would say because he was very involved he was in many ways a president in China of Kennedy's man in northern

New Mexico and I saw a picture of him my files the other day he came across it with Murph and so he had that understanding and that feel for this kind of thing. I think also that it would be interesting someday to get together with some of the people and the recipients and discuss the difference in media coverage during conflicts you know there's completely was completely different during Vietnam and the intrusion to the media now where they actually get involved and I think I was one of those who fought and angered a lot of people in my business about training media people you know making them go through a training period so they didn't get someone else blown up because they were out of shape. Very seldom do we talk about these things. I don't think I could have gone in person because of the media problem. I had an example of my own when I was in Korea just three months before the Medal of Honor deal I was awarded the Silver Star for our night operation out near Pandu and John and before we went out of that I was told by my company commander

I was to take a reporter from the Boston Globe. I said no I'm not going to get too busy watching to take care of my men and he told me you don't have the choice it's from above. I said well I'd like to talk to him above and they went to the Italian community and said that's right you got it taken. Well fortunately we had one of the best commanders he was the top Marine in Vietnam later on Colonel Wald on regiment and he got to him and he said Murphy's the boss. I don't think you could have done it during the Persian Gulf. I don't think you could have turned down the media. So times change you know we have to change them. I had had a hard time. I wish he found a word for today. Just glad to be here and it's quite an honor that they recognize us but Medal of Honor recipients and we're looking forward to the Patriots award. And we have our guest today Leo Murthy. Leo Murthy. Leo could always be a customer. Raven Murthy and Hiroshi Miyamura from McKinley County and Ray Murthy from Santa Fe and we

have two other living recipients. One is Richard Rocco and Richard will be with us later on and we did have Colonel Scott. Colonel Robert Scott on with us and of course the Commander serves as national commander was on just about a week ago and that is General Brady General Patrick Henry Brady. I want to thank you for helping us today to honor the recipients of the Convention of Medal of Honor and don't forget the big convention in Albuquerque from March 11th through the 13th. Thank you for being with us on report from Santa Fe. Report from Santa Fe is made possible in part by grants from U.S. West providing advanced telecommunication services to New Mexico homes and businesses and by the best Western High Mesa Inn, your Santa Fe destination, where sources on the High Mesa serve Santa Fe style food at affordable prices.