Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) Charles Patrick Murray, Jr. served as a Platoon Leader, Company Executive Officer and Company Commander of Company C, 30th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Infantry Division in Europe during World War II. | His subsequent duty assignments include: Battalion S-3, 11th Infantry Regiment; Assistant G-2 and Assistant Public Information Officer, Headquarters 82d Airborne Division; Special Liaison Officer, Headquarters United States Forces, Austria; Instructor, Tactical Department, United States Army Infantry School. | Major Murray successfully completed the Infantry Officer Advanced Course. He was out of the service from November 1945 to September 1946 while attending the University of North Carolina to obtain his Bachelor of Science Degree. | His awards and decorations include: the Medal of Honor, the Silver Star with two Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star Medal with one Oak Leaf Cluster and V Device, the Purple Heart, the French Croix de Guerre, the Combat Infantryman Badge and the Parachutist Badge. | Major Murray received the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor, for his heroic action on 16 December 1944 when he, while on patrol near Kayserberg, Germany, observed a force of 200 German soldiers attacking an American position. He tried to call for artillery fire but his radio was dead. Armed with an automatic rifle, he attached the enemy alone, killed 20 of them, wounded many others and prevented them from taking three of their mortars with them when they withdrew from the attack.