Diver demonstrated stoic heroism in face of treating wound

Bernie Murphy, now of North Haverhill, had lived many places before enlisting in the Navy. Prior to World War II, he worked for the Greyhound Bus Co. in a territory that covered much of the Midwest. He was living in Cleveland when the war broke out, and when trying to enlist, he was told to return to his former home in Boston to do so. Once in Boston, Murphy was inducted into the Navy and sent to Virginia’s Camp Perry, a training base on the James River. There, he learned to be a Navy diver. Diving in those days was done in a full body suit and heavy metal helmet, with oxygen supplied through an umbilical line that ran from the surface to the diver.