Memorial Day 2026
On this Memorial Day 2026, we at AZGPS pause our work, set down our equipment, and bow our heads in gratitude for those who gave everything so that we could carry on.
Honoring Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, Medal of Honor
We think often of heroes like Navy SEAL Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy of Patchogue, New York. On June 28, 2005, during Operation Red Wings in the mountains of Afghanistan, Lt. Murphy and his small team were surrounded and vastly outnumbered. Knowing it would cost him his life, he moved into open ground — exposed to enemy fire — to transmit a call for help for his teammates. He completed that call. He gave his life. He was 29 years old. For his selfless courage, Lt. Murphy was awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously, the first member of the Navy to receive that distinction since Vietnam.
Every Memorial Day, Americans across the country honor him by completing “The Murph” — a grueling physical tribute that carries his name. At AZGPS, we carry his name in our hearts.
Land Surveying and Military Service — A Bond Older Than the Nation
The boundary lines of this nation were not drawn by politicians alone. They were measured, walked, and marked by surveyors — often soldiers themselves — who followed armies into wilderness and laid the legal foundation of a country still being built. George Washington was a surveyor before he was a general. Abraham Lincoln carried a surveyor’s chain before he carried the weight of a nation. Lewis and Clark were surveyors and soldiers in the same breath.
The Public Land Survey System — the townships, ranges, and sections that define land ownership across the American West, including every corner we set here in Arizona — was established by the Land Ordinance of 1785, born directly from the need to organize land for soldiers returning from the Revolutionary War. The very grid we work within every day exists because this country wanted to give its veterans something solid to stand on. Land they could call their own.
When we set a corner monument in the Arizona desert, we are planting a marker in ground that belongs to a free people — free because of the sacrifice of those we honor today. That is not a small thing. We do not take it for granted.
Surveyors on Every American Battlefield
Surveying has always been intertwined with the defense of this nation. Military engineers and surveyors mapped every battlefield, every supply route, every beachhead. The maps that guided the D-Day landings were the work of surveyors. The coordinates that brought soldiers home were calculated by surveyors. The base camps, the forward operating bases, the borders between nations — all of it rests on the work of men and women who measured the earth with precision so that others could move across it with purpose.
Veterans and Land Surveying — A Natural Path Home
Today many veterans return home and find their way into the trades — construction, engineering, land surveying. We welcome them. The discipline, the attention to detail, the ability to work in difficult conditions and make critical decisions under pressure — these are the qualities that make an exceptional surveyor. If you are a veteran reading this and have ever considered a career in land surveying in Arizona, reach out to us. This profession has always had a place for those who served.
To the Fallen and Their Families
To every Gold Star family in Arizona and across this country — we see your sacrifice. We honor your loved ones by name, not just in ceremony. We are grateful in ways that words cannot fully reach.
To every veteran who carried a rifle so that we could carry a total station — thank you.
To Lt. Michael P. Murphy, and to the thousands of men and women whose names are carved into monuments and walls across this country — your lives were not lost. They were given. There is a profound difference, and we will never forget it.
From all of us at AZGPS Surveying — have a meaningful Memorial Day 2026. Hug your family. Remember the ones who cannot.
Travis Thompson, RLS 48482
AZGPS Surveying · Arizona
“All gave some. Some gave all.”
