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Air Force Master Sgt. John Allan Chapman fought until his last breath to fend off insurgents during a reconnaissance-turned-rescue mission on an unforgiving mountaintop in Afghanistan. Chapman is credited with saving the lives of the men who came to rescue his team. To this day, he is the only Air Force Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War.
Chapman was born July 14, 1965, in Springfield, Massachusetts, to Eugene and Terry Chapman. He had a brother named Kevin and two sisters, Lori and Tammy.
Chapman and his siblings grew up over the Massachusetts border in nearby Windsor Locks, Connecticut. According to his friends and family, Chapman made just about everything he did look effortless. He made Windsor Locks High School's varsity soccer team as a freshman, was a record-setting diver, and even rebuilt and maintained an old Pontiac GTO during those years.
In 1983, Chapman graduated high school. Two years later, he joined the Air Force as an information systems operator. However, he wanted to contribute more, so, in 1989, Chapman cross-trained to become a special operations combat controller. The training takes more than two years and is considered among the most rigorous in the U.S. military.
During training in western Pennsylvania, Chapman met Valerie Nessel, who he married in 1992. They had two daughters, Madison and Brianna.
Over the next decade, Chapman served a few years in Okinawa, Japan, before taking on a special duty assignment as a team leader preparing personnel within the 24th Special Tactics Squadron for missions.
After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the U.S. launched a retaliatory campaign against al-Qaida, which took responsibility for the atrocities. That campaign took U.S. special operators to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists hiding there.
On March 4, 2002, then-Tech Sgt. Chapman was attached to a six-man Navy SEAL team conducting reconnaissance on the top of Takur Ghar, a 10,000-foot mountain near Ghazni, Afghanistan. Their mission was to set up an overwatch post where they could support conventional forces in the valley below and report on the movement of terrorists in the region.
"This was a very high-profile, no-fail job, and we picked John," said retired Air Force Col. Ken Rodriguez, Chapman's commander at the time. "In a very high-caliber career field, with the highest quality of men — even then, John stood out as our guy."
Early that morning, as the team's Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter tried to insert them on top of the mountain, they were ambushed by between 40 and 100 al-Qaida fighters. The helicopter was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, jolting the Chinook and causing Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Neil Roberts to fall to the ground among a large group of enemy combatants.
The chopper was still flying but too damaged to continue, so the pilot completed a controlled crash into the valley below. The team quickly learned that Roberts was still alive, so they didn't hesitate to board another helicopter to return to the top of the snow-capped mountain to rescue him.
Despite more intense enemy fire, that helicopter landed, dropping the remaining men into the heart of the enemy stronghold. Chapman stepped off the chopper and immediately engaged, pushing his way uphill through thigh-deep snow toward the closest enemy position. Despite taking fire from multiple directions, Chapman fearlessly charged the enemy bunker, taking out all enemy combatants inside.
Almost immediately, the team started taking machine-gun fire from another fortified position about 40 feet away.
The situation was precarious, but Chapman didn't hesitate. He quickly moved into the open to attack the second bunker. As he did, he was struck by enemy fire, leading to severe injuries that caused him to fall unconscious.
Chapman's team reported that they thought he was dead, so in the continuing chaos, they moved down the mountainside and continued to fight off enemy gunfire.
Despite Chapman's severe wounds, however, he was still alive — something military investigators discovered after a 30-month investigation that included aerial video footage of the operation. When Chapman regained consciousness, he continued to fight multiple enemy combatants relentlessly for over an hour before he succumbed to his injuries.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team that had moved down the mountain continued to fight for about 14 more hours until they were rescued by an Army Ranger quick reaction force.
During the intense battle, six other men died: Roberts, who they originally returned to rescue; Air Force Senior Airman Jason Cunningham, Army Sgt. Philip Svitak, and three Rangers: Army Cpl. Matthew Commons, Army Sgt. Bradley Crose and Army Spc. Marc Anderson.
Chapman was credited with saving the lives of numerous men who came to his rescue that day. He initially earned the Air Force Cross for his actions.
"John was always selfless. It didn't just emerge on Takur Ghar. He had always been selfless and highly competent," Rodriguez said after the battle. "He could have hunkered down in the bunker and waited for the and team to come in, but he assessed the situation and selflessly gave his life for them."
When his body was returned home, Chapman was buried in St. Mary Byzantine Catholic Church Cemetery in Windber, Pennsylvania.
In the mid-2010s, the records of numerous Air Force Cross recipients were reviewed to determine if any had been passed over for the Medal of Honor. The secretary of the Air Force at the time recommended that Chapman's award be upgraded, and it was approved.
On Aug. 22, 2018, Chapman's widow received the Medal of Honor on her husband's behalf from President Donald J. Trump during a White House ceremony. Chapman was also posthumously promoted to master sergeant and inducted into the Pentagon Hall of Heroes, which is customary the day after a Medal of Honor ceremony.
"John died exactly the way he lived — doing anything in his power he could to help those in need," said then-Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright during the induction.
Chapman's legacy continues to build across the military. In 2005, a Navy cargo ship, Motor Vessel TSgt. John A. Chapman was named in his honor. On Oct. 26, 2018 — shortly after Chapman received the Medal of Honor — a new aircraft at Hurlburt Field, Florida, was dedicated to him. That same day, Chapman's name was unveiled on the base's special tactics wall of honor.
In May 2019, a life-sized figure of Chapman, a portrait and a replica of his Medal of Honor were unveiled and put on permanent display at Pope Army Airfield's nationally recognized museum. In March 2020, the Chapman Training Annex was renamed in his honor at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas.
This article is part of a weekly series called "Medal of Honor Monday," in which we highlight one of the more than 3,500 Medal of Honor recipients who have received the U.S. military's highest medal for valor. The new National Medal of Honor Museum in Arlington, Texas, will celebrate these recipients when it opens its doors on National Medal of Honor Day, March 25, 2025.
