Still later in US history, Audie Murphy, the most decorated American soldier of World War II, rose from rural poverty in Texas and enlisted at age seventeen. He is depicted in his most famous act, single-handedly holding off a German tank and infantry force in France, atop a burning tank destroyer, while wounded. The base for this sculpture is a “slice” of an M10 Wolverine tank destroyer, accurately depicted, along with the .50 caliber Browning he used. He wears an M1943 uniform with helmet and equipment an officer would have carried, some of it thrown to the deck where the spent shells accumulated. His crouched posture and his focused expression convey his determination.