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In the South Shore community of Patchogue, where American flags often fly from front-porch rails, an effort to rename a high school after a 1994 graduate who was granted the nation’s highest military honor after dying in a firefight in Afghanistan has drawn vocal support.
But there is quiet grumbling that the community is being made into a living memorial to one individual.
Already, the Patchogue post office is named after Navy Seal Lt. Michael P. Murphy, as is the Brookhaven Town beach at Lake Ronkonkoma, where Murphy was a lifeguard. The Patchogue-Medford High School lobby holds a prominent display honoring Murphy, who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor last October. He was killed in June 2005.
“The question is, how many heroes do we have, and how many school buildings are there?” said one public employee.
This story is based on scores of interviews in the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan, along with official records, military and media reports. To flesh out the story of the four U.S. Navy SEALs who were sent to Afghanistan to track a reputed terror leader, reporter Martin C. Evans spoke with U.S. Navy officials, family members and military colleagues of the four men. He also spoke with Navy officials about SEAL training, and with other military officials about conditions in eastern Afghanistan where the four SEALs were sent on their mission. In Afghanistan and Pakistan, reporter James Rupert spoke with experts on the fighting in Afghanistan, U.S. military officials, and the goat herder who rescued the lone survivor of a gun battle that took the lives of three of the SEALs
A school board meeting this week drew about 400 people after a veterans group urged supporters of the name change to attend.
“There are 217,000 people buried at Calverton, and only one of them has the Medal of Honor,” said Bryan Davis, referring to the national cemetery. Davis taught Murphy at Saxton Middle School.

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