Long Island High Schooler Crafts Display For Lt. Michael Murphy Navy SEAL Museum

BOHEMIA, NY — A wooden American flag display case crafted by an 11th-grade Connetquot High Schooler was recently donated to the Lt. Michael P. Murphy Navy Seal Museum in West Sayville, school district officials announced in a news release.

After students in Aliza Doheny’s social studies class visited the museum, she asked if any of the school’s woodworking students would be willing to make something for the museum as a symbol of their appreciation, and technology teacher Jonathan Pope immediately thought of his student, Ryan DiPrima, for the project, school officials said.

DiPrima, who has taken many of his hands-on technology classes, is a phenomenal student, takes tremendous pride in his work, and is very patriotic, and when the project was mentioned to him, he immediately wanted to get involved, according to school officials.

Murphy, a Patchogue native, was killed along with two teammates in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2005. The museum is dedicated to telling the history of the SEALs from the elite unit's inception to the present day.

It houses artifacts from the various campaigns the SEALs have taken part in. Some of the items include gear that Murphy owned, such as a hydration pack believed to have been used by him in Afghanistan.

DiPrima and Pope began bouncing ideas off of one another and settled in an American flag display case for challenge coins, which are given to reward hard work and excellence and are popular in military and law enforcement fields, school officials said.

DiPrima, a volunteer firefighter, collects challenge coins and ended up lending his personal touch to the project, according to school officials.

He and Pope worked on the project every day during their free periods before once again attending Doheny’s field trip to the museum this year where the case was presented to Murphy’s father, Dan.