91-year-old World War II veteran in suburban Detroit honored with Distinguished Flying Cross
4/22/2014ROCHESTER HILLS, Mich. — A 91-year-old World War II veteran in suburban Detroit has received a long-overdue honor.
On Monday, Alfred P. Murphy received the Distinguished Flying Cross from the U.S. Air Force during a ceremony at American House, a retirement community in Rochester Hills where he lives. His family and American House workers helped pursue the recognition for the former Detroit firefighter.
Murphy served as a technical sergeant and was a member of a B-17 air crew during World War II. The military says Murphy and his crew completed 35 combat missions, including surviving a 1944 flight over Germany in which several other bombers were lost.
Murphy says the “skill and courage of the entire crew” should be credited. His record wasn’t fully evaluated during World War II for consideration of the honor.