{"id":81112,"date":"2018-08-10T12:51:29","date_gmt":"2018-08-10T16:51:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=81112"},"modified":"2022-01-13T20:34:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-14T01:34:14","slug":"air-force-sgt-john-chapmans-heroic-final-moments-medal-of-honor-to-follow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=81112","title":{"rendered":"Air Force Sgt. John Chapman’s heroic final moments, Medal of Honor to follow."},"content":{"rendered":"

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The U.S. Air Force on Thursday released an aerial video that shows highlights of Tech Sgt. John Chapman\u2019s heroics during hand-to-hand combat on an Afghanistan peak before he was killed by Al Qaeda militants.<\/p>\n

Chapman, 36,\u00a0a native of Windsor Locks, Conn., could be seen on March 4, 2002, charging the enemy on\u00a0Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot mountain,\u00a0Task & Purpose reported<\/a>. Chapman joined Navy SEALs in an effort to recover a wounded comrade who had fallen from the aircraft after it was hit with a rocket-propelled grenade.\u00a0 Chapman “charged into enemy fire through harrowing conditions,” seized a bunker and killed its occupants, the White House said.<\/p>\n

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The Air Force said he was struck and temporarily incapacited by enemy fire when he moved from one protective cover to engage the enemy.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Britt K. Slabinski, a retired member of SEAL Team 6, who received the Medal of Honor in May for his heroics during the same 14-hour battle, believed Chapman was dead, and moved the team — including someone with a serious leg injury — off the battlefield,\u00a0the New York Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Chapman regained consciousness and fought for an hour after being gunned down but managed to kill two more enemies, reports said.<\/p>\n

Slabinski, who completed 15 combat tours,\u00a0told the New York Times in 2016<\/a>\u00a0that he was \u201c95 percent certain\u201d that Chapman was killed and was skeptical of the video’s accuracy and analyses. He told officials that Chapman\u2019s actions helped save his team that day.<\/p>\n

Slabinski retired from the Navy in 2014 after more than 25 years of service. He said following the ceremony that the medal “belongs to so many others” and named the teammates “who followed me without hesitation.” Slabinski said the medal also belongs to seven Americans who died on the mountaintop.<\/p>\n

“They gave all for us. This honor is truly theirs. They are the true heroes,” he said in a statement delivered on the White House driveway.<\/p>\n

But Deborah Lee James, who worked under President Obama as the Air Force secretary, said Slabinski deserves his medal and his contributions shouldn’t be underestimated.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody thinks that he did anything other than his absolute best on the worst day of his life,\u201d James said of Slabinski,\u00a0according to the Washington Post<\/a>. \u201cHe thought he was dead, and he was responsible for four or five others that he was trying to save.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Trump will award the Medal of Honor posthumously to Chapman\u2019s family on Aug. 22 — 16 years after he died.\u00a0He will be the first airman to receive the award since the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n

James had recommended Chapman for the award, but she said it stalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe the SEALs want to honor John Chapman,\u201d James told the paper. \u201cWhat some don\u2019t want is they don\u2019t want it linked to him getting back up and fighting back on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Associated Press contributed to this report<\/i><\/p>\n

Fox News Report<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The Fog of War is a shitty thing to have to live with.\u00a0 Brave men doing their best in the midst of chaos.<\/p>\n

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The U.S. Air Force on Thursday released an aerial video that shows highlights of Tech Sgt. … Air Force Sgt. John Chapman’s heroic final moments, Medal of Honor to follow.<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":667,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[84],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-81112","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-military-issues"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81112","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/667"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=81112"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81112\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=81112"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=81112"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=81112"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}