PITTSBURGH — Staff Sgt. Thomas P. Murphy saw his baby daughter, Aileen, once.
The Pittsburgh native was killed in action a few months later during the Battle of the Bulge. He was one of eight brothers from a North Side family who served in the U.S. armed forces during World War II.
"He was a big, powerful guy who had played football," his brother, Joseph E. Murphy, recalled. "The last time I saw him we had a beer at Bishop's Cafe on Federal Street."
"Tom was one of the good guys," his brother, Edward Murphy, agreed.
Thomas Murphy's daughter, now Aileen Tapp, is a Catholic school principal in Florida.
Joseph, 90, of Verona, and Edward, 86, of Butler, are the two surviving brothers. They and their sister Margaret "Peggy" McCloskey, 81, who lives in Beaver, grew up in a family of 12 children where their parents emphasized patriotism.
A few days before Veterans Day, Joseph Murphy talked about his World War II service and that of his brothers. He had a visual aid to help jog his memory. His son-in-law, Blase Santoriello, of Freeport, recently updated a photo collage with pictures of all eight brothers in their service uniforms.
As Murphy pointed to the images of each of his brothers, he talked about growing up in Pittsburgh's Observatory Hill neighborhood during the worst years of the Great Depression.
Despite those tough times, the Murphy children were encouraged to stay hopeful. "My mother instilled in us a great love for this country where we all were able to make good lives," he said.
Their mother, Nora, and their oldest brother, Martin, came to Pittsburgh from County Kerry, Ireland, in 1912. Nora Murphy was coming to be reunited with her husband, Patrick, who had arrived in America one year earlier.
According to family history, Nora and Martin had been originally booked on the Titanic. A last-minute change of plans saw mother and son leave Queenstown, now Cobh, Ireland, weeks later on the smaller, older Coronia. The decision to switch ships likely saved their lives, Nora's granddaughter Patti Cavanaugh said. She is Edward Murphy's daughter and lives in Butler.
"When I went to bed last night, I couldn't sleep," Joseph Murphy said of the evening before he was interviewed. "All of these memories floated up." While he talked about his brothers, his daughter Maryann recorded him telling stories with the camera in her tablet computer.
"It was the Depression that molded us," he said. "Those were hard times. My brother John was very bright, but he had to quit school in the 10th grade."
John L. Murphy did very well for a high-school drop-out. He joined the U.S. Army as a private in 1939 and retired in 1964 as a lieutenant colonel. He had been a soldier for only a few months when he was tapped as potential officer material, Joseph Murphy said.
Even before they began their military service, the five oldest Murphy boys had enlisted in President Franklin Roosevelt's Civilian Conservation Corps. Martin, Eugene, Thomas, John and Daniel were among the almost three million unemployed young men who took part in the public works program. Corps members, who were subject to quasi-military discipline, built hundreds of parks and planted billions of trees between 1933 and 1942 in return for room, board and small wages.
Brother Eugene was the only one of the family's nine sons not to have served in the military. He was employed as a defense worker with Westinghouse Electric Corp. and the company would not let him go, Joseph Murphy said.
The family also included sisters Anna Marie, Kathleen and Margaret.
Irish-born Martin Murphy was 38 and married when he was drafted into the army in 1943. He saw service in Europe through 1945.
Daniel M. Murphy was a U.S. Marine who served during both World War II and the Korean War. He earned a Navy Cross for bravery during the battle of Chosin Reservoir in November and December 1950. As a result of his heroism, he was inducted into the Hall of Valor at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall and Museum in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.
Daniel Murphy looked like a marine, Joseph Murphy said. His duties included being a member of the honor guard for President Harry Truman. His photo is featured on a 1941 Marine Corps recruiting poster. One of the Murphy family's treasured keepsakes is a copy of the poster of him carrying the Marine Corps flag.
Joseph, born in 1924, was drafted in 1943 after he finished high school. That was in time to get him sent to Luzon in the Philippines, where he was a driver with the 706th Tank Battalion.
"Manila was called the Pearl of the Orient," he said. "But when I saw it, the entire city had been demolished."
It was in the Philippines that he had his closest call. "I was out on point," he recalled, doing a job that left him most exposed as his unit moved through hostile territory. "It was very dark, and I got lost in a rice paddy."
Then he heard enemy soldiers talking nearby.
"I crouched down as low as I could go," he said. "They kept going, and I got back to my outfit."
Before the war ended three younger Murphy brothers also would be in uniform. William Regis Murphy and James Vincent Murphy served in U.S. Navy in the Pacific theater. Their youngest brother, Edward P. Murphy, joined the Merchant Marine at age 16. He enlisted in the Marines the following year.
While he was at sea as a merchant mariner, Edward suffered an attack of appendicitis and needed an immediate operation. "Because he was so young, they had to call his mother to get permission to operate," his daughter Patti Cavanaugh said. "This was one of his favorite wartime stories."
Margaret McCloskey, Joseph's and Edward's surviving sister, was elementary-school age while her brothers were away at war. "I remember when they came home on leave, my mother made sure that anything they wanted, they could have," she said.
Nora Murphy was a loyal correspondent, "She wrote to one son or another every day," Mrs. McCloskey said.
The Murphy family's tradition of military service continued in the next generation among Nora and Patrick's grandchildren. Those in uniform included Marine Cpl. James Ganano, the son of Kathleen. He was killed in action in Vietnam in 1969. His picture has been placed in the center of the photo collage showing all his uncles in their World War II uniforms.
Joseph Murphy shut his eyes for a moment while he reflected on his military service and that of other family members.
"In many ways they were the worst years of our lives and also the best years," he said. "That's because we were young."
