Soldier Honored: Joel L. Murray
Hometown:
Branch of Service: Army
Rank: Sgt.
Army Sergeant Joel L. Murray was an infantryman assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division, Fort Riley, Kansas. Murray died of wounds sustained when an improvised explosive device hit the Humvee he was a passenger in, near Sadr City, Iraq, while on his second deployment in support of the Global War on Terrorism. He was born July 9, 1981 and died September 4, 2007 at just 26 years old.
Joel Murray grew up in Salina, Kansas until his junior year when he moved to a small town near Beloit, Kansas. He graduated in 1999 from Beloit High School where fellow classmates remember him as funny, smart, and loyal. After high school, SGT Murray went to college for a while and then joined the Army in January 2003. His first post was Seoul, South Korea. He was on his second tour in Iraq and always knew as an infantryman he had a very dangerous job and excelled at his job in spite of the danger. His father, Kenneth says, “You always know your son’s an infantryman who puts himself in harm’s way. And you also know that he knows what can happen. But he does it, and that makes him different than most people”.
Sgt. Murray is survived by a wife and son, who is a recipient of the Folds of Honor Children’s Fund Scholarship.