Jake Murphy, USMA ’09
Our special guest speaker this year is Jake Murphy. Jake grew up in Wellesley, Massachusetts. Following high school, he was recruited to play lacrosse for Army at the United States Military Academy at West Point. While there he received a general engineering degree with a secondary major in Spanish. Following graduation in May of 2009, Jake was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant into the infantry branch of the Army, sending him to Fort Benning, GA where he completed the Infantry Officers Basic Course, Airborne School, and Ranger School. Following his stint in Georgia, Jake was assigned to the 10th Mountain Division in Fort Drum, NY where he met his wife Lisa Morgan. While at Fort Drum, Jake was assigned a platoon of 40 soldiers who he oversaw and deployed to Afghanistan with. Four months into the deployment Jake was injured from a blast from an Improvised Explosive Device.
As a result of the blast, Jake lost both of his legs and went into a coma for a month. He had to learn how to use his prosthetics as the explosion caused him to become a bilateral amputee dealing with amputations with one being above and the other below his knee. Additionally, Jake has dealt with the aftermath of his coma which caused him to be diagnosed with a traumatic, severe brain injury.
Jake, Lisa and their two children Nolan and Lilah currently moved from their home in Flower Mound, Texas but to a custom built “smart” home in Copper Canyon, TX. The house is handicap accessible and was received through the Gary Sinise Foundation.
Previously, Jake worked for Verizon Communications doing supply chain work while concurrently receiving his Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Texas at Dallas. Following his time with the Telecommunications company, he transitioned to Lockheed Martin within the PAC-3 Program where he has been working with the Evolutionary Development team with the Quality Organization since August of 2017. In the Fall of 2019, Jake moved out of the development realm and started supporting the contract between Lockheed Martin and the country of Japan, being named the Quality Lead on the team in January. In addition to performing his duties of a Quality Engineer, Jake is an active member of the Employee Resource Group (ERG) community, acting as a board member on the Military Veterans group and an Able with Allies and Able ERG.
