Amid the rush of her presidential campaign, Senator Clinton took a moment out yesterday to recognize a hero, issuing a statement welcoming the news that a Long Island native, Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, will be honored at the White House on October 22 with the Medal of Honor. Murphy, a graduate of Penn State and the son of a Vietnam veteran, turned down acceptances at two law schools to join the Navy and its elite special operations team, the SEALs. He was part of a four-man team that, as a privately operated Navy SEAL Web site recounts, was inserted into Afghanistan along the Pakistan border in 2005 to capture or kill a high-value Taliban target. Ambushed, they fought for 45 minutes. They were all wounded. As the Navy SEAL Web site and Mrs. Clinton’s statement recount, Murphy exposed himself to more enemy fire and climbed to high ground to make an electronic call for help.

That call brought a helicopter of 16 American reinforcements, which was shot down by an enemy grenade. Murphy and two of his colleagues fought on to their deaths, making it possible for one of them to escape alive. It’s common to call the World War II era veterans “the greatest generation,” and some even go so far as to portray the current generation of GIs as a bunch of war criminals or those who had no other options. But one of the many great things about America is that in every generation, new heroes rise.