Born in Highland Falls, New York to a military family,
MSG Murray joined the Army in 1983 as an offset pressman
(MOS 83F).
He attended Basic training at Fort McClellan, AL and upon
competing Advanced Individual Training at Fort Belvoir,
VA, he was assigned to the field printing plant, Fort Gordon,
Georgia reproducing orders and manuals. He quickly moved
on to an assignment in Field Station Augsburg in Germany.
For 20 of the 30 months he was assigned, he was alone operating
a three soldier printing plant for the instalation.
He was then recruited for and assigned to the White House
Communications Agency in Washington, DC in October of 1987,
where his primary mission was to provide printing and graphics
support for all of the military units assigned to executive
support. His additionally duties included traveling on Presidential
and Vice Presidential advance teams setting up communications
support around the world. The 10 years of service under
Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton included temporary duty
in 29 states and 14 countries on 6 continents.
His next assignment was to the 100th Engineer Company (TOPO)
at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, as a platoon sergeant in
the production platoon. Following a very successful two
month deployment as the Senior NCO of a 15 soldier detachment
that deployed to the Bright Star '99 exercise in Egypt,
he was re-assigned to HHC 30th Engineer Battalion to serve
as the NCOIC of the S-3 TOPO office where he managed all
aspects of the battalion's topographic taskings and was
selected to represent the active Army in the development
of the High Volume Map Printer system (DTSS-HVMP); a replacement
for the Army printing presses.
In August of 2001 he was assigned as the production platoon
sergeant for the 320th Engineer Company (TOPO) in Hanau,
Germany. In May 2002 he was selected for promotion and assigned
as the First Sergeant for the Company. In January 2003 the
company was alerted and deployed to Kuwait in several slice
elements. The company crossed the border into Iraq in late
April and operated out of Balad, Iraq until March 2004;
however, 1SG Murray broke his leg in October of 2003 and
had to assist the company's redeployment from their home
station in Germany.
MSG Murray'sfinal assignemnt was the Maneuver Support Center,
Capabilities and Intigration Division, Force Design Branch
as the Senior Topographic Combat Developer, Fort Leonard
Wood, Missouri. His responsibilities include material development,
material management and force structure management for geospatial
engineer units.
He retired from the Army in June 2008 after over 24 years
of service. He is currently employed as a Department of
the Army Civilian and works for the Manuver Support Center
of Exellence as a Force Design Analyst. His duties include
assisting the in the Force Design Update process and editor
of the Manuver Support, Table of Organization and Equipment
(TOE) reference book.
MSG Murray awards include the Bronze Star, Defense Meritorious
Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (with two oak leaf
clusters), Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation
Medal, Joint Service Commendation Medal, Army Commendation
Medal (with one oak leaf cluster), NCO Professional Development
Ribbon (with number 3), the Presidential Service Badge and
the German Marksmanship in Bronze. He is married to Cecilia
Murray from Richmond, VA; he has one daughter, Elsie, who
lives in Wilmington, North Carolina.
