## The Second Marriage and Later Life
Murphy’s marriage to Pamela Opal Lee Archer in 1951 outlasted the first marriage and provided the domestic stability of a family life that his early years had not offered. Their sons, Terry and James, were born during the 1950s. Murphy was involved in the management of a quarter-horse breeding operation and in various business ventures, some successful and others not.
He maintained his reserve military status. He joined the Texas Army National Guard about a month after the Korean War began in 1950, in the 36th Infantry Division. The 36th was not sent to Korea. He was promoted to major in 1956 and transferred to the Army Reserve in 1969. The military connection persisted for years after his active service ended, partly as an institutional affiliation and partly as a form of continued engagement with the institution that had defined the most significant years of his life.
His advocacy for veterans continued through these years. The specific argument he made — that the government had an obligation to study and address the psychological effects of combat on soldiers — was ahead of its institutional reception. Post-traumatic stress disorder as a formal diagnostic category did not exist until 1980, when it was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Murphy’s advocacy in the 1960s, before that diagnosis existed, was pushing for recognition of a condition that the psychiatric profession had not yet formally defined.
He pushed for it anyway.
## The Plane Crash: May 28, 1971