Watch The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded: CCT John Chapman

March 4, 2002: John Chapman, an Air Force Combat Controller, along with a SEAL Team, are attempting to rescue their lost teammate. You’ll watch Chapman’s stunning and heroic actions as he saves the lives of his entire SEAL team, and another 18 members of a quick-reaction force, to earn America’s highest honor: The Medal of Honor.

In this video, Alone at Dawn author and former CCT Dan Schilling narrates Chapman’s movements as he heroically engages the enemy and defends his teammates.

For more information about Chapman’s heroic actions, check out the book Alone At Dawn, available here on our reading list page: https://afspecialwarfare.com/reading-list/

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Chapman was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor in May of 2018. His citation reads:

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.