0:15

Bushkin. It

0:21

was March fourth, two thousand and two,

0:24

fewer than six months after the World Trade

0:26

Centers fell. The sun was rising

0:28

on a bleak and snowy mountaintop in eastern Afghanistan.

0:31

It was a little after six in the morning, and

0:34

Air Force technical Sergeant John Chapman

0:37

was alone in enemy territory,

0:40

bleeding to death. He had been

0:42

shot, he was losing strength,

0:45

he was low in ammunition, and it was bitterly

0:48

brutally cold. For hours

0:50

in the dark, it faced off against Taliban

0:52

and al Qaeda militants. He was outnumbered,

0:55

outgunned, but he fought on it

0:58

killed at least five men, one in

1:00

hand to hand combat, and he was fending

1:02

off the rest from the relative safety

1:04

of a makeshift bunker basically

1:06

just a shallow trench dug at the base of a tree,

1:09

keeping his head down, trying to survive

1:11

until reinforcements would arrive, he

1:14

hoped. Suddenly,

1:16

the unmistakable sound of a helicopter filled

1:19

the air. A black Chinook appeared on

1:21

the horizon. Back up was finally

1:23

here, but Chapman had seen

1:25

what happened to helicopters had tried to

1:27

land on this mountain. The two previous

1:29

ones, including the one that brought him

1:31

here, had been hit hard by enemy fire.

1:34

He knew the men on that helicopter might die

1:37

unless he could do something.

1:40

He had two options, stay where

1:42

he was not exactly safe

1:45

but safer, or he

1:47

could venture out into the open to

1:49

try and provide covering fire for the helicopter

1:52

to try and save those men. The

1:55

snow around him was drenched in blood, his

1:58

and the man he'd killed. He shouldered

2:00

his assault rifle, and then,

2:03

looking out into the thin light of the morning

2:05

sun, he stood up. I'm

2:10

Malcolm Gladwell, and this is Medal

2:12

of Honor Stories of Courage.

2:14

The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration

2:17

in the United States, awarded

2:19

for gallantry and bravery in

2:21

combat at the risk of life, above

2:23

and beyond the call of duty. Each

2:26

candidate must be approved all

2:28

the way up the chain of command, from the supervisory

2:31

officer in the field to the White House.

2:34

This show is about those heroes,

2:37

what they did, what it meant, and

2:39

what their stories tell us about

2:41

the nature of courage and sacrifice.

2:45

John Chapman's story is the last one

2:47

we will tell this season, and more than

2:49

any other, it tells us why

2:51

the Medal of Honor is so important. It's

2:54

the story that reveals an essential

2:56

truth. The medal isn't really

2:59

for the recipients themselves. Those

3:01

heroes would insist that their acts

3:03

of bravery don't need an audience or accolades.

3:06

They would say, as doctor Mary Walker famous,

3:09

he did, I could not do otherwise.

3:12

It's not for them. The medal

3:14

of Honor is for the rest of us, to

3:16

remind us of our human capacity for

3:19

bravery and self sacrifice,

3:22

and to show us that even if those acts

3:24

of courage are unseen, invisible

3:27

to others, they still

3:29

matter. They maybe even matter

3:31

more.

3:45

When John Chapman was growing up in the little

3:47

town of Windsorlocks, Connecticut, his

3:49

mom, Terry, noticed something different

3:51

about him. He was, even

3:53

as a kid, strangely attuned

3:56

to other people.

3:57

He was born with this ability to sense

4:00

people's feelings or sense when people were

4:03

in need of help. He always put

4:05

others before himself. He

4:08

felt that that's that's the right thing to do.

4:10

John was a standout athlete, a

4:13

soccer star, and a state champion diver.

4:15

A well loved kid with an easy laugh, square

4:18

jawed and handsome, he could have been the worst

4:21

kind of popular high school boy, but

4:23

John had a distaste for social clicks

4:25

and bullies. He had a way of making

4:27

other people feel comfortable and

4:30

to drive to push himself hard

4:33

to do good in the world.

4:34

His senior year book quote was give

4:37

up yourself before taking of others.

4:40

He went to college for a semester, but it

4:42

was clear he wanted a different kind of challenge.

4:45

He dropped out and repaired cars while

4:47

he fixated on his next step, joining

4:50

the Air Force. Within a few

4:52

years of enlisting, he had another higher

4:55

goal. He wanted to become a combat

4:57

controller. Combat controllers,

5:00

or CCTs are battlefield

5:03

experts who in bed with the lead forces,

5:06

the Navy Seals or the Army rangers

5:08

and call in air strikes from the field. It's

5:11

a key role in any dangerous mission, going

5:13

into a combat zone and working as

5:15

an on the ground air traffic controller

5:18

triangulating bombers and drones under

5:20

the most intense pressure. CCTs

5:24

go through grueling months of training,

5:26

not just for the technical skills they need,

5:29

but also to prepare for every kind

5:31

of hostile environment. They

5:33

learned combat diving, wilderness

5:35

survival, any special tactic

5:38

you can imagine only a small

5:40

percentage make it through. The

5:42

few who succeed are ready to deploy

5:45

undetected to establish assault

5:47

zones behind enemy lines. Their

5:50

motto is first there.

5:54

Of the one hundred and twenty men who signed

5:56

up for training when John did, only

5:58

two became CCTs.

6:01

John, of course, was one of those

6:03

two, and soon thereafter

6:06

he qualified for the twenty fourth

6:08

Special Tactic Squadron, the

6:10

most elite of the elite

6:12

of the Air Force. At

6:15

the same time as John was honing his lethal

6:17

skills at work, he was creating

6:19

a safe haven of a home life in

6:21

a small house in North Carolina

6:24

with his wife, Valerie, and two little

6:26

girls, Madison and Brianna.

6:30

Valerie remembers how all in he

6:32

was as a father.

6:34

You didn't know if he just came off a training mission, and you know,

6:36

he'd walks the door and he was daddy. He was bathing

6:38

the girls, playing barbie dolls

6:41

with them, reading them bedtime stories he

6:43

used to love.

6:44

You know.

6:44

After the bath, he'd wrap them up in a towel and swing

6:46

them and throw them onto the couch. And

6:48

he was just fully present hundred

6:51

percent of the time. I mean, you never would know

6:53

what he was trained to.

6:54

Do what he was trained to do,

6:56

of course, was annihilate the enemy.

6:58

But for a while in the late nineteen nineties,

7:01

it looked like he might not put those skills

7:03

to the test in an American war. By

7:06

the age of thirty six, John

7:09

and realized he might never go to

7:11

battle. Then came

7:14

nine to eleven. We all remember

7:16

watching it on the news that day.

7:18

And you can see the two towers, a

7:21

huge explosion now raiding to pray

7:23

on all of us, we never get.

7:24

Out of the bank.

7:25

The unthinkable happened today the World

7:28

Trade Center, both towers gone,

7:30

and we are all witnesses to it, and to

7:32

some degree we are all victims.

7:34

This conflict was begun on the timing in terms

7:36

of others.

7:37

It will end in a way, and at an

7:39

hour of our choosing.

7:42

The first major American military

7:45

operation in Afghanistan took

7:47

place in March of two thousand and two in

7:49

the Shycote Valley, a roughly sixty

7:52

square mile area ringed with rocky,

7:54

snowcapped mountains. The

7:56

US forces called it Operation Anaconda

8:00

because the idea was to squeeze the joint

8:02

Taliban and Al Kaeda forces

8:04

in the valley, but the situation

8:07

was more treacherous than anticipated. The

8:09

terrain was difficult, the snow waist

8:12

deep, the weather unimaginably

8:14

cold, and the enemy almost

8:16

tripled the size expected. Well

8:18

armed, well trained, and dug

8:21

into the higher elevations. Even

8:23

history was on Afghanistan's side.

8:26

Afghan fighters in this valley had

8:28

battled back invading forces for

8:31

two thousand years, from Alexander

8:33

the Great to the Soviet Army. On

8:37

the night of March fourth, a group of Navy

8:39

seals sealed to him six

8:41

which would famously go on to kill Osama

8:43

bin Lauden. Ready to enter the fight,

8:46

they were led by a quiet and wiry senior

8:49

chief named Britt Slabinsky. Their

8:51

combat controller was John Chapman.

8:54

The two men had worked together since the

8:56

previous October, and John and the

8:58

seals were a well integrated

9:01

team, all more than

9:03

ready to get into the action. They'd

9:05

been waiting in Afghanistan for over

9:07

a month by now. Their

9:09

mission was to go to a mountain called Takergar

9:12

on the southern side of the shy Coote Valley

9:14

and secure an area of operations

9:17

from which they could call in air strikes on

9:19

enemy forces. They would do

9:21

this under the cover of darkness, fly

9:24

by helicopter to the base of the mountain in the

9:26

middle of the night, then stealthily

9:28

ascend to the ten thousand foot

9:31

summit, giving them a chance to

9:33

see exactly what they were up

9:35

against before anyone noticed them.

9:38

But that tightly formulated plan

9:41

was about to hit some insurmountable obstacles.

9:45

First, the helicopter they were supposed

9:48

to use that night had a faulty engine.

9:51

The team had to call in a replacement, costing

9:53

precious time. It became clear to

9:55

his Slebinski that if they hiked to the

9:57

top of the mountainous planned, they would

10:00

arrive after the sun of prison too

10:02

exposed, too dangerous,

10:05

so he asked command if he could delay

10:07

the mission for twenty four Their

10:10

quest was denied. Instead,

10:14

it was decided that their helicopter would

10:17

land at the top of Takogar rather

10:19

than the base, announcing themselves

10:22

instantly to anyone who happened

10:24

to be on the mountain. They didn't know

10:26

exactly what was up there, but they knew

10:28

they were enemy soldiers on many of those

10:30

mountains, and those soldiers

10:33

were ready to fight. But

10:35

an order was an order, So

10:38

at two fifty five am, the team

10:40

loaded into a Chinook helicopter and

10:43

headed for the peak. Here's

10:45

Slabinsky remembering.

10:48

Soon as we landed, our helicopter

10:50

came under rocket RPG,

10:53

rocket prolgrenade fire, and

10:55

heavy machine got fire.

10:57

Another combat controller, Jay Hill,

10:59

was on a different mountain, just a few kilometers

11:02

away, with a view of Takagar. He

11:04

watched as a Chinook carrying the Seals

11:07

and John was hit with a rocket

11:09

propelled grenade, then another

11:11

and another, screaming through the night

11:13

sky.

11:14

And as soon as it sat down on top of the mountain top,

11:17

we saw the RPG strike the aircraft.

11:20

In the aircraft move towards

11:22

the valley.

11:24

Slabinsky realized they were in deep

11:26

trouble and ordered the helicopter to

11:28

retreat. But as the damage Chinnook

11:31

lifted off again, it started shaking

11:33

and rolling, and a member of his seal

11:36

team, Petty Officer Neil Roberts,

11:38

lost his footing and slid down

11:40

the open ramp into the darkness

11:43

and onto the snowy peak of Takragar.

11:46

I knew Neil was in trouble. I knew

11:48

he was in the midst of the enemy and numerically

11:51

superior force they had me out

11:53

gunned. They were at extreme altitudes,

11:56

we were in extreme temperatures

11:58

and pretty much opering at the extreme end

12:00

of all aircraft capabilities.

12:03

But the Seals, of course have a motto leave

12:06

no man behind. So as soon as the

12:08

mangled Chinnook save crash landed,

12:10

Slabinsky and the team started making plans

12:12

to go back and get Roberts. Knowing

12:15

what awaited them at.

12:16

The top of Takagar, I

12:19

made the decision that we're going to make an

12:22

immediate rescue attempt to go back and get

12:24

Neil.

12:25

John Chapman was all in. He didn't

12:27

have to go back, but he was part of

12:30

the team. He wouldn't think of staying

12:32

behind. Chief Master Sergeant

12:34

Rob Harrison was there as part of a

12:36

gunship crew providing reconnaissance

12:39

and air strikes. Like all the men, he

12:41

knew how dangerous this mission would be.

12:44

These guys knew that they were going right back into the same

12:46

spot that their original aircraft was shot

12:48

up and they lost a teammate out of the back

12:50

end of the helicopter. So these

12:53

guys, they knew what risk they were facing,

12:55

and they charged right back in there to

12:57

save one of their very own.

12:59

By now it was four thirty five am,

13:02

still dark, but not for long. The

13:05

seals in John were outfitted with night

13:07

vision goggles for red strobe

13:09

lights and laser sights on their rifles,

13:12

Otherwise they would be completing this mission

13:15

in total darkness, another dangerous

13:17

layer to an already lethal errand.

13:20

As the new helicopter rose into

13:22

the frigid night sky, Slabinsky

13:25

felt the enormity of what was

13:27

ahead of them.

13:28

I remember got my night vision goggles

13:30

on and everything's green looking through my goggles

13:33

to stick my head, but have outside

13:35

the aircraft to look at my mouth coming up that I'm

13:37

getting ready to go fight on. And

13:41

I'm looking at it and I'm like, Wow, what a majestic

13:43

mountain. This thing looks like. Ah, And

13:46

now what a crazy thought about what we're

13:49

a ready getting to go do looking at

13:51

this thing.

13:52

The helicopter didn't have enough fuel

13:55

for a reconnaissance pass over the mountain, and

13:57

they couldn't drop mortars on the waiting enemy

14:00

for fear of harming Roberts. They would

14:02

just have to go in themselves. Six

14:05

men on the mountain and above them

14:07

an air Force gunship ready a fire

14:09

on the enemy. Once John gave

14:11

the call, plus a US Predator

14:14

drone silently recording the action.

14:17

As the Chinook landed, it was immediately

14:20

slammed by enemy fire, just as

14:22

the first helicopter had been, but

14:24

this time the seals in John dove

14:27

off the chopper into the knee deep snow.

14:30

Over the roar of the helicopter's rotors,

14:33

they could hear the sound of enemy machine

14:35

guns.

14:36

I asked John, say, John, what do you have? He

14:39

said, you know, I don't know. And then

14:42

right away we started taking heavy

14:45

fire from a bunker that was right

14:47

in front of us.

14:49

John could see that the enemy had the advantage

14:51

of the high ground and positions that were

14:53

dug into the rocky, snowy terrain.

14:56

Even without night vision goggles, enemy

14:59

soldiers would be able to pick off the members

15:01

of his team. John needed a protected

15:03

spot to set up his gear and call

15:05

in airstrikes. He decided

15:08

that he had to get to the bunker and

15:10

clear it, whatever the cost. So

15:13

John didn't hesitate. He ran

15:15

uphill towards the bunker, which was dug

15:18

underneath a solitary tree. His

15:20

heart was pounding in the thin atmosphere.

15:23

He held his MFOL rifle against his shoulder,

15:26

firing and firing again. He

15:29

was first up the mountain through the

15:31

blackness into the fire, breaking

15:33

a trail to the heavy inches of snow, never

15:36

looking back. Slabinski

15:38

followed behind.

15:40

As I look around, there's all these all these

15:42

mozo flashes from everywhere, and

15:44

I'm thinking there's a lot of people up here. There's

15:47

well, it's snapping by our heads, like little

15:49

snapping, and you can see

15:51

puffs of snow coming up all around us.

15:54

Inside the makeshift bunker, two

15:56

fighters sat in the dark. John

15:58

materialized out of the night and

16:01

shot them both. Slabinski

16:03

joined him in the bunker. It provided some

16:06

shelter, but shots were still blazing

16:08

in from a second bunker twenty five

16:10

feet away, strafing the two men

16:12

and the four other seals on the mountain. Both

16:16

John and Slabinsky fired

16:18

back, centering the laser points

16:20

of their rifles on the muzzle flashes

16:22

they saw in the darkness. Moving

16:24

out of the bunker to expose themselves

16:26

to danger again and again.

16:29

Above them, that predator drone

16:32

hovered invisible. Its

16:34

pilot was fifteen hundred miles away.

16:36

His role was to watch what was happening on the mountain

16:39

and report what he saw to the gunship crew.

16:42

The footage was grainy, just the heat

16:44

signatures of bodies moving through space.

16:47

The pilot couldn't tell who was who, but

16:49

the drone had captured the shapes of the men as

16:51

they had exited the helicopter as

16:54

they engaged the enemy. A

16:56

silent witness to what was happening

16:59

on Taka Gar Now

17:02

just outside the bunker, an al Qaeda

17:04

fighter charged to John from the right,

17:07

firing. John went towards him

17:10

out of the bunker. He shot his rifle

17:12

and the fighter fell. But before John

17:14

could sight another target, the sound

17:17

of machine gun fire caught the darkness.

17:20

John was thrown backwards into the snow,

17:22

shot twice in the torso.

17:25

For Britz Slabinski, it was becoming

17:27

clear that the mission's goal had to change.

17:30

He had come to save one man, and

17:32

now it seemed like he had lost another. He

17:35

knew John was down. He was lying ten feet

17:37

away outside of the bunker, but Slebinsky

17:40

could see the laser of John's rifle

17:42

pointing against the tree, rising

17:45

and falling with his breath, and

17:47

then John's laser stopped

17:49

moving. Slobinsky concluded

17:53

he must be dead. In

17:55

the meantime, the other seals were getting

17:57

picked off in the dark, two of them seriously

17:59

wounded. They had to retreat or

18:02

Slobinsky was sure they would

18:04

all end up like John.

18:06

I look around at all my guys again and I

18:08

see there still heavy amounts of fire come

18:10

in. I look over at John. I'm seeing no movement

18:13

from John. And I realized that because

18:16

we're out in the open life

18:18

expectancy now, it's going to be measured, probably

18:20

in second. So I make the command that we're going to reposition

18:23

my force just over the side

18:25

of the cliff.

18:26

The five remaining seals huddled

18:28

together then retreated as quickly as

18:30

they could, sliding down the snow

18:33

and over the side of the ridge. They

18:35

would group further down the mountain and

18:37

call for reinforcements. It was

18:39

five ten am, fifteen

18:41

minutes into the mission. As soon

18:43

as the sun rose, they would be in even

18:46

more trouble, no longer able to

18:48

hide in the dark. The

18:50

Predator drone still harbored above.

18:52

On his screen, its pilot could see the shape

18:55

of a still warm body under a tree.

18:57

He watched as another group of figures came

18:59

together below the bunker and then

19:02

dropped one by one down the snowy

19:04

ledge pick slated shapes

19:06

moving in the pre dawn night. John

19:09

Chapman had rushed to the bunker to save

19:11

the seals on his team. Now he lay

19:14

motionless and alone in the snow. For

19:17

a moment, everything was quiet at the peak

19:19

of Taco Gar, a freezing wind,

19:22

a silent predator drone overhead.

19:25

But just five minutes later something

19:28

changed. Back at the peak where

19:30

those two bunkers were, the drone

19:32

picked up movement.

19:33

The main element had withdrawn a couple

19:36

hundred meters, but all of a sudden, at

19:38

the original point there was an iron

19:40

strobe active again.

19:42

At the top of Taco Gar, an infrared

19:45

strobe worn by an American

19:47

came alive. We'll

19:50

be right back. John

20:05

Chapman was lying in the snow, his

20:07

legs crumpled beneath him, alone

20:10

at the peak of Takregar. His team

20:12

was certain he was dead. He had

20:14

taken two gunshot wounds to his torso,

20:17

but he was alive. Because

20:19

John was alone, it's impossible to know

20:21

what he was thinking, how he felt in those

20:23

moments when he regained consciousness. Pain,

20:26

certainly, but also a jolt

20:29

back to where he was. His purpose

20:31

there to protect what remained

20:33

of his team to move back into

20:35

the safety of the bunker and to call for air

20:38

support, as he had been trained

20:40

to do. His frozen

20:42

fingers must have fumbled with the radio he had

20:44

strapped to his chest. He switched

20:46

it to a battlefield common frequency,

20:49

and then he spoke using his call

20:52

sign, any station, any

20:54

station, this is MAKO three

20:56

zero Charlie three

20:58

kilometers away. His fellow combat

21:01

controller, j Hill heard it and

21:03

responded, but only static

21:05

came back over the radio. John

21:07

called again and again, but he never heard

21:10

Jay's responses. It's not clear

21:12

if they ever reached him. Anyway,

21:14

he had bigger issues for one thing,

21:16

the enemy now knew he was there for

21:19

another. Once Slebinsky had left

21:21

the peak, he had been able to call the air

21:23

strikes to the top of Takergar, not

21:25

realizing that John was alive up there. John

21:28

crouched in the bunker as the American

21:31

gunship fired rounds down on the mountain.

21:34

Undeterred, the enemy fighters

21:36

stalked closer to John's position. The

21:39

Predator drone hovered overhead,

21:41

but to anyone watching it wasn't clear

21:44

what it showed. It was just anonymous

21:46

shapes moving on a screen. Two

21:49

al Qaeda fighters rushed the bunker

21:52

and John shot them. He engaged

21:54

another in hand to hand combat. Now,

21:56

in addition to the two gunshot wounds,

21:59

his face was battered, he

22:01

had shrapnel in his arms, but still

22:03

he fought on the sun

22:06

slowly crept up above the horizon. His

22:09

ammunition dwindled, and

22:11

then just after six a m.

22:13

John heard the rotors of a helicopter

22:16

beating against the sky. Slabinsky

22:19

had called in a Quick Reaction Force or

22:22

QRF to come to the aid of his remaining

22:24

group of seals, But now this

22:26

helicopter full of eighteen men

22:28

was going to land right in the middle

22:31

of the hornet's nest, just as

22:33

the tube before it had. Major

22:35

G. Brown was the combat controller

22:38

on that Shinnuk. He remembers

22:40

it clearly.

22:41

Sun was coming up.

22:43

It was just about dawn.

22:44

We did one pass over the mountain top, and

22:47

on that second pass we began to flare

22:49

to land.

22:50

John knew what would happen to that helicopter

22:53

as soon as it got close, and

22:55

he knew that he had to draw fire away from

22:57

it. He was taking cover in that

22:59

bunker, likely shaking from

23:01

blood loss and exhaustion and exposure

23:03

to the freezing temperatures, but

23:06

he was still alive, and as long as he

23:08

was alive, he was going to protect

23:10

those men.

23:12

He knew the

23:14

very immediate danger he was in.

23:17

Lieutenant Colonel Ken Rodriguez wasn't

23:19

on tacker Gar, but he knew John who

23:22

he was as a man and as an airman.

23:25

He was John's commander in the Elite twenty

23:27

fourth Special Tech Squadron.

23:29

He's already been wounded multiple times, and

23:33

now he sees the helicopter, the quick

23:35

reaction helicopter coming in, and

23:38

he came out from cover and

23:40

exposed himself to very accurate enemy

23:43

fire. Now John's would never

23:45

say I know for a fact I won't get through

23:47

this. John was a very much I'll do whatever

23:50

I can to get through this. But he knew

23:52

in his hardest hearts. I'm convinced he

23:54

knew what kind of danger he

23:57

was exposing himself to. The enormous

24:00

risk that he placed himself

24:02

in when he stepped out to

24:04

defend that quick reaction for his helicopter

24:07

and the lives of the men on board.

24:09

Roughly an hour after he had woken up alone

24:12

on the peak of Takagar, John

24:15

Chapman stood in the early morning light.

24:17

He shouldered his rifle. Then

24:20

he slid down the slope, legs

24:22

in front of him, firing rounds

24:24

in a desperate attempt to protect the helicopter.

24:27

He watched as the Chinook was hit

24:29

by an RPG. He fired the

24:32

last of his ammunition, and

24:34

then he was shot through the

24:36

heart. He fell

24:38

back onto the snow for the second

24:40

time that morning. He

24:43

was dead. Nobody

24:46

on the helicopter saw John fall.

24:48

They weren't looking for him, after all, they

24:50

believed he had died long before John

24:53

did what he did invisibly.

24:56

No one knew then what sacrifice

24:58

he had made. It wasn't until later

25:00

that they found out and realized

25:03

what it meant.

25:04

He sacrificed himself for the for the q

25:06

R AFT that came in.

25:09

It was almost the case that no

25:11

one ever knew about John Chapman's

25:13

one man's stand, We'll

25:16

be right back. Ultimately,

25:32

seven lives would be lost on tackle. Gar Neil

25:35

Roberts, the first seal to follow that day,

25:38

died before they reached him John Chapman

25:40

and five men from the QRF. But

25:43

the mountaintop would eventually be secured

25:46

an operation and a conda would

25:48

be considered a success. It

25:51

fell to Canrodriguez to tell John's

25:53

family, Valerie, Madison

25:55

and Brianna, what had happened. He

25:58

went to that little house in North Carolina where

26:01

John and his girls felt so

26:03

safe.

26:04

When I went to Valerie's doorstep

26:06

to tell her that John wasn't coming home,

26:09

and I saw those two, those

26:12

beautiful little girls, there

26:14

were five

26:16

and three times, I thought, yeah,

26:19

they're good, you grow up without their daddy.

26:22

I just I think that

26:24

every time I might thank him John.

26:28

Both John Chapman and Britt Slabinski

26:31

were awarded for their bravery on Taka

26:33

Gar. Slabinsky was decorated

26:36

with the Navy Cross, John with

26:38

the Air Force Cross. He was

26:40

honored for his fearless race across the snow

26:43

to that first bunker, for eliminating

26:45

the enemy there and protecting the

26:47

seals of his team, all

26:50

actions from before they were

26:52

treated down the mountain. But

26:54

after hearing about his incredible one man

26:56

stand, you've got to be wondering, why

26:59

not the medal of honor. Here's

27:02

why nobody knew that John

27:04

Chapman had survived past that first

27:06

time he was shot. There had been no eye

27:09

witnesses to his final power

27:11

long battle. So the

27:13

Air Force Cross might have been the end of

27:15

the story. Except in May

27:17

of twenty fifteen, thirteen

27:20

years after John's death, Deborhly

27:22

James, then Secretary of the Air

27:25

Force, read an.

27:26

Article The Air

27:28

Force Times had a headline what's to take for

27:30

an airman to be awarded the Medal

27:32

of Honor? And they had various

27:34

accounts of airmen who had

27:36

distinguished themselves above and beyond the

27:38

call of duty in combat, who

27:41

had been awarded the second highest award,

27:43

but not the Medal of Honor. And

27:45

when I read about John Chapman

27:48

and his exploits

27:50

in March of two thousand and two in Afghanistan,

27:53

I could not understand why this case,

27:56

for example, didn't merit

27:59

a higher level award.

28:01

So James ordered a review. She

28:03

is, by her own admission, obsessed

28:06

with fairness, and there were parts

28:08

of the story it didn't make sense

28:10

if John had been killed the first time he was

28:12

shot. She wondered, did

28:15

his heroism deserve something

28:17

more? And she discovered

28:19

the answer it did. The

28:22

Air Force Cross had only honored half

28:25

of John's story. Nobody had seen

28:27

the rest of it, except

28:29

for that drone.

28:31

The most important thing for me was

28:33

there was drone footage, which,

28:36

for whatever reason, was

28:38

not reviewed at the time.

28:42

The drone footage was hazy. The

28:45

person who had been monitoring at that day

28:47

was thousands of miles from the action. At

28:50

the time, it wasn't clear exactly

28:52

what it showed, but James

28:54

and the review board ran the footage

28:56

through newly available software which

28:59

could isolate pixel representations

29:01

of people and track their movements.

29:04

We could see the moment that Chapman

29:06

went down. We could

29:08

see when the rest of the team withdrew

29:11

from the mountain. The rest of the team we

29:13

know, believed Chapman to be dead at

29:15

that time, and certainly he was down, but

29:18

we also know from that footage that Chapman

29:21

got back up again and

29:23

continued fighting while he was

29:26

alone. So that drone footage

29:28

just as well could have been DNA in a crime

29:31

scene to me, But.

29:33

By now you know this isn't how Medal of Honors

29:35

submissions usually work. Remember

29:38

Alwen Cash. The Medal of Honor relies

29:40

on eyewitness testimony, but

29:42

in this case, John was alone.

29:45

The only humans on tackle Guard to witness

29:47

his one man's stand were enemy fighters,

29:51

and Britt Slabinski was certain

29:53

John was dead or he never would have left

29:55

him.

29:56

I believe this was the first case ever in

29:58

history that relied to a degree

30:00

on forensic type evidence technical

30:03

evidence. Every other Medal

30:05

of Honor case heretofore was solely

30:08

on Eyewitnes accounts.

30:10

Alongside the Joan footage, they

30:13

scrutinized John's autopsy, which

30:15

showed injuries that could only have been

30:17

received after the rest of the

30:19

sealed team departed. Jay

30:22

Hill, the other combat controller, told

30:24

them about hearing John's call sign again

30:27

and again the stress in John's

30:29

voice. Plus there was the fact

30:31

that John had used up almost all of

30:33

his ammunition, proof of

30:36

a prolonged fight. James

30:39

saw an obvious conclusion. What

30:41

she didn't foresee was pushback.

30:45

The Special Operations community,

30:48

much to my surprise, questioned

30:52

that the technical evidence that we thought

30:54

was the slam dunk proof that

30:56

Chapman had survived the initial

30:58

wounding, got back up and continued fighting.

31:01

This went on and on and on

31:04

for months. I came to believe over

31:06

time that it was simply

31:09

too hard for these

31:11

other human beings who were

31:13

representing people who had done the very

31:15

best that they could do on the

31:17

worst day of their life.

31:20

That they had left someone behind alive.

31:24

I think they could not come to grips

31:26

with that, and so they

31:29

rejected that piece of the argument

31:33

they believed and continued to say, we

31:36

believe that Chapman was dead

31:38

at the time we withdrew, and

31:41

so without that new

31:44

evidence, the package was

31:46

stalling. Without their coordination,

31:48

it was taking more time.

31:51

You can only imagine how hard it must

31:53

have been for the Seals to think that

31:55

they had left John there alone.

31:58

Leave no man behind is an article of

32:00

faith for the Seals. This

32:02

new information changed the narrative

32:05

in a way that was heroic for John but

32:08

horrifying for the others who'd been there.

32:11

And just to be clear, nobody

32:13

second guest bittz Slobinski's decision

32:16

to retreat from the top of Takergar.

32:19

I believe firmly that every single

32:22

man on that hill made the very best

32:24

decisions they possibly could while

32:26

bullets are flying, while people are getting wounded,

32:29

and to say anything other than

32:31

that would be a miscarriage of

32:33

what really went on.

32:35

Even John's mom agrees Johnny

32:38

would have wanted them to do just that,

32:40

to take their wounded off the mountain.

32:43

Deborly, James, who saw John's

32:45

medal as her fight, who believed

32:47

it was her duty as Secretary of the

32:49

Air Force to honor all aspects

32:51

of his bravery, couldn't believe

32:54

the package was getting slowed

32:56

down.

32:57

I thought that

32:59

the desire to honor a

33:02

fallen brother would overcome

33:05

any other possible feelings

33:08

that might be out there. I

33:11

think the truth of the matter is they

33:14

wanted to do both. They wanted to honor

33:16

him, but they could not take that additional

33:18

step of admitting

33:21

a mistake. A mistake, as I said

33:23

earlier, was honest, and

33:26

it wasn't the fog of war. It

33:28

was the whipping wind and snow of

33:31

war and the uncertainty

33:33

that comes in these situations.

33:37

I don't fall to anybody

33:40

for what they did that day. I just

33:42

wish they had been more supportive of

33:44

getting this package through without

33:46

controversy.

33:47

For John Chapman, James

33:50

kept pushing for what she thought was fair

33:53

and right, navigating the package

33:55

to the hurdles of defensiveness

33:58

and doubt, and finally,

34:00

in August of twenty eighteen, President

34:03

Donald Trump awarded John his

34:05

Medal of Honor. But you can't

34:07

imagine that the medal have mattered to John.

34:10

I believe John will hear.

34:11

He would say, every one that would have done the same

34:13

thing as they're trained to do.

34:16

One of the great gifts of working on this

34:18

podcast series has been getting

34:20

to explore the extreme reaches of

34:23

the human spirit, the exceptional

34:25

bravery, as the military says, above

34:28

and beyond the call of duty,

34:31

exemplified by the Medal of Honor.

34:34

It's interesting to me that so

34:36

many of these stories have happened in the dark. Henry

34:39

Johnson battling at midnight against

34:41

the German raiding party, Ted Rubin

34:44

holding that North Korean ridge all night

34:46

long, Jave Argus and his men

34:48

in the Vietnamese cemetery, and

34:51

now John Chapman alone

34:53

in the dark attacker gar It

34:56

didn't matter to John if his acts of

34:58

bravery were seen, if

35:01

anyone knew about them. That

35:03

wasn't the point. It never

35:05

is Deborly, James would

35:07

tell you that the Medal of hon is important

35:10

because it teaches those in the military

35:12

what they can achieve.

35:14

The stories of Medal of Honor recipients

35:18

live on for decades

35:20

and even centuries in the US military.

35:23

Military students learn about

35:26

these stories in school. These

35:28

are stories that go down

35:30

in the history of the services.

35:35

But stories like John Chapman's should

35:38

matter to the rest of us for a

35:40

different reason. Most

35:42

people would probably assume that anyone

35:45

in their right mind would stay in

35:47

that bunker if they were wounded and

35:49

outnumbered like John was. His

35:51

story is proof that not everybody

35:53

would. That being human can

35:56

mean sacrificing yourself alone in

35:58

the dark, with no hope of being famous

36:01

or richly rewarded. Medal

36:03

of Honor recipients make exactly

36:06

those kinds of choices. Only

36:09

look at the official citations

36:11

for each recipient, those short

36:13

few paragraphs the President reads at

36:16

the ceremony. You're left with

36:18

a pretty unrelatable snapshot

36:20

of an extraordinary moment in time. That's

36:23

why I wanted to make this show. The

36:26

Medal of Honor isn't meant to take these people

36:28

and put them on an unreachable pedestal.

36:31

It's meant as an inspiration

36:35

challenge. And by learning

36:37

who the recipients were as people, what

36:39

they went through, what they were like, you

36:42

understand these aren't

36:44

comic book heroes. These

36:46

are human beings. Through

36:49

the medal, its recipients stay

36:51

alive in our collective memory,

36:53

encouraging us forward in

36:55

the same way that Valley believes that John lives

36:57

on to their daughters.

37:00

His legacy will continues as long as you

37:02

know they tell his story to their

37:04

children and their children's children.

37:06

I mean, he will live forever.

37:09

Courage doesn't just happen on the

37:11

battlefield. So many people

37:14

all over the planet are bravely

37:16

struggling alone, unseen,

37:19

fighting their own battles in their own

37:21

ways, overcoming incredible

37:24

odds in circumstances

37:26

that we can never fully appreciate or

37:29

understand. That's

37:31

why it matters that we bring these

37:33

stories of heroism out of the dark

37:36

and into the light. With

37:38

each one, we acknowledge

37:40

a hero's service and their sacrifice,

37:43

but we also acknowledge the strength that's

37:46

within all of us, the potential

37:49

to do better, to be

37:51

better, and to make a difference,

37:54

even if nobody can see what

37:57

a difference you've made.

38:09

Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage is written

38:11

by Meredith Rollins and produced by Meredith

38:14

Rollins, Costanza Gallardo,

38:16

and Izzy Carter. Our editor

38:18

is Ben the Dafaffrey. Sound design

38:21

and additional music by Jake Gorsky, Recording

38:24

engineering by Nina Lawrence, fact

38:26

checking by Arthur Gombert's Original

38:28

music by Eric Phillips. The

38:31

rest of our team includes Carl Ketel,

38:33

Grete Cone, Christina Slomon,

38:36

Sarah Nix, Nicole upden

38:38

Bosch, Eric Sandler, Kerry Brody, Taly

38:41

Emlin, and Jake Flanagan. Special

38:43

thanks to series creator Dan

38:45

McGinn to the Congressional Medal

38:47

of Honor Society and Adam

38:50

Plumpton. I'm

38:52

your Host Malcolin Babbo