WASHINGTON — The first Medal of Honor awarded for combat in Afghanistan will be presented today to the family of a Navy SEAL from Long Island, who gave his life to make a radio call for help for his team.

President Bush is to present the nation’s highest military honor for valor to the family of Lieutenant Michael Murphy of Patchogue.

“There’s a lot of awards in the military, but when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever they went through is pretty horrible. You don’t congratulate anyone when you see it,” the lone member of Murphy’s team to survive the firefight with the Taliban, Marcus Luttrell, said.

Murphy, Mr. Luttrell, and two other SEALs were searching for a terrorist in the Afghan mountains on June 28, 2005, when their mission was compromised after they were spotted by locals, who presumably alerted the Taliban to their presence.

An intense gun battle ensued, with more than 50 anti-coalition fighters swarming around the outnumbered SEALs.

Although wounded, Murphy is credited with risking his own life by moving into the open for a better position to transmit a call for help.

Still under fire, Murphy provided his unit’s location and the size of the enemy force. At one point he was shot in the back, causing him to drop the transmitter. Murphy picked it back up, completed the call and continued firing at the enemy who was closing in.

He then returned to his cover position with his men and continued the battle. An American helicopter sent to rescue the men was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, killing all 16 aboard.

By the end of the two-hour gunfight, Murphy and two of his comrades were also dead. An estimated 35 Taliban were also killed. Mr. Luttrell was blown over a ridge and knocked unconscious. He escaped, and was protected by local villagers for several days before he was rescued.

“We look at these guys and say, ‘What heroes,'” Murphy’s father, Dan Murphy, said. “These guys look at themselves and say, ‘I’m just doing my job.’ That’s an understatement, but that’s the way they view it, and that was Michael’s whole life.”

Murphy, who died before his 30th birthday, is the fourth Navy SEAL to earn the award and the first since the Vietnam War. Two Medals of Honor have been awarded posthumously in the Iraq war: to Marine Corporal Jason Dunham, who was killed in 2004 after covering a grenade with his helmet, and to Army Sergeant 1st Class Paul R. Smith, who was killed in 2003 after holding off Iraqi forces with a machine gun before he was killed at the Baghdad airport.