View Full Version : 1st Medal of Honor recorded footage captured
BlackSunrise
03-05-2020, 11:00
https://youtu.be/3oKMjTqdTYo
twistedsquid
03-05-2020, 15:57
I watched this several times over the last few months. The narrator says he was awarded a second MOH for his actions?
BlackSunrise
03-06-2020, 08:17
I watched this several times over the last few months. The narrator says he was awarded a second MOH for his actions?
That perked my ears up as well. I have heard of a few double MOH recipients however from the ones I have heard about they received them during separate combat actions/engagements. I haven't heard of anyone receiving a double citation on the same day (this is just from ones I have heard/read about).
I believe the narrator simply misspoke, from my research he did not receive a double citation.
Here is Technical Sergeant John Chapmans full MOH citation:
Technical Sergeant John A. Chapman distinguished himself by extraordinary heroism as an Air Force Special Tactics Combat Controller, attached to a Navy Sea, Air, and Land (SEAL) Team conducting reconnaissance operations in Takur Ghar, Afghanistan, on March 4, 2002. During insertion, the team’s helicopter was ambushed causing a teammate to fall into an entrenched group of enemy combatants below. Sergeant Chapman and the team voluntarily reinserted onto the snow-capped mountain, into the heart of a known enemy stronghold to rescue one of their own. Without regard for his own safety, Sergeant Chapman immediately engaged, moving in the direction of the closest enemy position despite coming under heavy fire from multiple directions. He fearlessly charged an enemy bunker, up a steep incline in thigh-deep snow and into hostile fire, directly engaging the enemy. Upon reaching the bunker, Sergeant Chapman assaulted and cleared the position, killing all enemy occupants. With complete disregard for his own life, Sergeant Chapman deliberately moved from cover only 12 meters from the enemy, and exposed himself once again to attack a second bunker, from which an emplaced machine gun was firing on his team. During this assault from an exposed position directly in the line of intense fire, Sergeant Chapman was struck and injured by enemy fire. Despite severe, mortal wounds, he continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice. By his heroic actions and extraordinary valor, sacrificing his life for the lives of his teammates, Technical Sergeant Chapman upheld the highest traditions of military service and reflected great credit upon himself and the United States Air Force.
There is no mention of a second award. Nor is he listed as a MOH double recipient on the Congressional Medal of Honor Society website: http://www.cmohs.org/double-recipients.php
1stindoor
03-06-2020, 08:27
I think he meant those actions, for a second time, qualified him to be awarded the MOH.
BlackSunrise
03-06-2020, 08:28
I think he meant those actions, for a second time, qualified him to be awarded the MOH.
Agreed.
I think he meant those actions, for a second time, qualified him to be awarded the MOH.
My thinking too. He originally only got an AF Cross which was upgraded so the second action may have sealed it.
That said, the SQUEALS tried to block it until this video came out. Then the SEAL Team Leader was also awarded an MOH, which is interesting since the team left Chapman, alive, in the bunker and he saved their asses. I would call that a 3rd qualifying action!
Texas_Shooter
03-07-2020, 17:50
https://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/navy-seals-seal-team-6-left-behind-die-operation-anaconda-slabinski-chapman-912343.html
I am pretty sure Newsweek isn't that reputable but they do show a narrative of SEALs covering their own so one of theirs could get a MOH...
doctom54
03-08-2020, 17:39
My thinking too. He originally only got an AF Cross which was upgraded so the second action may have sealed it.
That said, the SQUEALS tried to block it until this video came out. Then the SEAL Team Leader was also awarded an MOH, which is interesting since the team left Chapman, alive, in the bunker and he saved their asses. I would call that a 3rd qualifying action!
Yep!
BlackSunrise
03-09-2020, 10:54
https://www.newsweek.com/2018/05/18/navy-seals-seal-team-6-left-behind-die-operation-anaconda-slabinski-chapman-912343.html
I am pretty sure Newsweek isn't that reputable but they do show a narrative of SEALs covering their own so one of theirs could get a MOH...
Good share on the article, I thought it was pretty informative. Sadly this controversy takes precedence over what happened on the ground and the actions involved on that day.
Got to love the bureaucratic BS, in the end this statement stood out to me:
"How can one man earn a Medal of Honor saving everyone else's life, and the second guy—whose life was saved by the first, as he acknowledges in his witness statement, and who then makes the decision to leave the first guy for dead—also earn the nation's highest medal?"
Things that make you go hmmmmmm?