His mother describes Lt. Michael Murphy as “someone who always stuck up for the underdog.” His father says he was “honest, kind, caring — probably the antithesis of what you would call a warrior.”

Murphy is the first U.S. service member to receive the Medal of Honor for action in Afghanistan.

Two years after he was killed in a firefight in Afghanistan, Dan and Maureen Murphy and their son John on Monday received Lt. Murphy’s Medal of Honor for heroism on the battlefield from President Bush.

Murphy’s honor is the first to be awarded from the war in Afghanistan. Two Medals of Honor have been awarded to soldiers serving in Iraq.

In June 2005, Murphy, 29, led his four-man Navy SEAL team into the 10,000-foot peaks of Afghanistan’s Hindu Kush to search for a terrorist thought to be in the region. But they were soon spotted and started taking fire from more than 40 insurgents.

According to a Navy report on the incident, the insurgents held the advantage of terrain and launched a well organized, three’sided attack on the team, forcing them deeper into a ravine.

More about Lt. Michael Murphy here and here