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Damon Murphy
Branch of service: United States Navy (USN)
Unit: USS Salt Lake City
Rank: E5
Home: Los Angeles, California
Served in: Great Lakes, IL for boot camp; Groton, CT for 'Sub-school' and 'Sonar A-school'; San Diego, CA aboard the USS Salt Lake City (SSN-716); and Portsmouth, NH on the USS Salt Lake City decommissioning crew. On deployment I served in Southeast and East Asia for the most part, and for my final deployment on the way to decommissioning on the East coast, we went through the Arctic, broke through at the North Pole, and continued on through the North Atlantic to my final duty station in Portsmouth, NH.
Patriotism, extreme nationalism, or whatever you wish to call it, swept the nation in September of 2001. I found myself in acquiescence, and soon after, in the US Navy on a submarine as a sonar technician. I never imagined that my government, the United States government, in all of its altruistic benevolence, would put our own people, our own children, in the line of fire over lies; for money and power. What have the people who've served gotten in return : Shame. That's the price of an atrocity; however small of a role I may have played, that's what I feel on a daily basis. This war forced me into the realization and recognition of my duty. IVAW, to me, is a way for me to fulfill what I see as my duty. Posts by Damon Murphy |