by

Josh Duey

    Lt. Joseph Murphy was a native of Waterloo, where he was born on March 3, 1920. Before World War II, he was studying to be a priest at St. Joseph’s College in Westmont, IL. [1] After the war broke out, he enlisted and soon found himself training in Florida. In Tampa, Murphy married Gloria James on June 14, 1943. [2]

    Soon after the wedding Murphy participated in a training flight. Before this, he had been promoted from navigator to bombardier. [3] The plane was to fly from MacDill Field, Tampa, Florida, to Harding Field in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Sadly, the routine training maneuver turned into a disaster when the plane crashed near Walker, LA. [4] The crash killed all seven men on board, including Joseph Murphy. [5] His tragic story reminds us that not all lives sacrificed in war are lost in battle. 

  Footnotes

                                              
1. "Murphy, Waterloo, Among Seven Dead in Plane Crash," Waterloo Daily Courier, July 13, 1943, p. 1. 

2. Ibid. 

3. Ibid. 

4. Ibid. 

5. Ibid. 

   Bibliography 

 
"Murphy, Waterloo, Among Seven Dead in Plane Crash," Waterloo Daily Courier, July 13, 1943, 1.