Soldier Honored: Marcus V. Murralles
Hometown: Shelbyville, IN
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: Sergeant 1st Class
Sergeant First Class Marcus Murralles was assigned to the 3rd Battalion, 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment out of Hunter Army Airfield, GA. On June 28, 2005 SFC Murralles was in a MH-47 Chinook helicopter on a rescue mission during combat operations that crashed near Asadabad, Afghanistan. All 16 special operations soldiers and sailors aboard were killed.
Marcus, 33 of Shelbyville, IN, enlisted in the Army in 1994 and became an aerial flight medic for the elite group of warriors known as the Night Stalkers. He had been deployed to Iraq twice and was on his third tour in Afghanistan at the time of his death. Sergeant First Class Murralles was scheduled to return home on leave to surprise his daughter on her July 4th birthday. However, plans changed when Marcus took the place of another medic who had injured his leg.