OT Bonus - The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded

The First Medal of Honor Ever Recorded - YouTube

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...of_Honor-1.jpg

Medal of Honor Recipient. He was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor on August 22, 2018. 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.

True courage, they fight for each other.

I watched that video footage a couple time too...

Having read the post and watched the video I think that the following quote from George Orwell is appropriate:
"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."
Sgt John Chapman was one of those rough men.

A Great American.

Another quote that fits Sgt. Chapman.

"No matter how much it hurts, how dark it gets or no matter how far you fall, you are never out of the fight."

Marcus Luttrell

The book is on it's way.

I wonder why the C130 didn't hose the area? They fired the 105 but not the Vulcans?

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Originally Posted by frankderrico

Another quote that fits Sgt. Chapman.

"No matter how much it hurts, how dark it gets or no matter how far you fall, you are never out of the fight."

Marcus Luttrell

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“There are no great men, there are only great challenges that ordinary men are forced by circumstances to meet.”

― ADM William F. Halsey

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Originally Posted by bob seijas

I wonder why the C130 didn't hose the area? They fired the 105 but not the Vulcans?

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I'm hoping the book will fill in the gaps. It's impossible the tell from the video how/why things evolved the way they did. For one, the steep terrain reported by the narrator cannot be seen. At 35 seconds into the recording, everyone seems to regroup at the bottom of the field of view, and Chapman moves alone up the slope. Was the main group pinned down where they were? Was the terrain such that only Chapman was able to move at first? How did he come to be left behind? I'm anxious to study further.

The first Medal of Honor "recorded" threw me at first. Jacob Parrott was the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor - for a mission in April 1862 behind enemy lines in Tennessee. Jacob Parrott was from Kenton Ohio, just a few minutes away from where I grew up.

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Originally Posted by bob seijas

I wonder why the C130 didn't hose the area?

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The quick reaction team had not yet verified the location of Chapman's original team that had slid down the mountain. One of the most plausible hypotheses as to how he was left behind is that, once they began to retreat down the slope, they passed over Robert's dead body (seen clearly in the video), and mistook it for Chapman, who was inside the bunker. However, there were multiple contradicting stories by eyewitnesses (even by the same people contradicting themselves) in the intervening years between 2002 and 2018.
I won't spoil the read for you - but suffice to say that the book goes in to great detail to put together what actually happened, and reports of a deliberate effort of some officers to bury the truth. They all get named in the book. Very sad, really.
The terrain details are much more apparent in the video after reading the book. The reason the team lead seems to linger before going up the mountain with Chapman is that he stumbled getting out the helo - falling through the thigh deep snow, and face planted with his NVG's on. As soon as he cleared them out and reoriented, he took off after Chapman.
https://www.amazon.com/Alone-Dawn-Re.../dp/1538729660

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Originally Posted by ssgross

The first Medal of Honor "recorded" threw me at first. Jacob Parrott was the first to be awarded the Medal of Honor - for a mission in April 1862 behind enemy lines in Tennessee. Jacob Parrott was from Kenton Ohio, just a few minutes away from where I grew up.

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FYI, the "Andrews Raid," for which Parrott was awarded the MOH, occurred in Georgia, on the rail lines between Big Shanty (Kennesaw - just northwest of Atlanta) and Ringgold, GA (18 miles south of Chattanooga, TN). The raiders stole a locomotive named "The Gerneral" and fled north, damaging rail lines as they went. Because they wore civilian clothing over their uniforms mos of them were executed after they were caught. In the 1960s, after "The General" was restored, I was among the few who had the opportunity to ride behind it before it was retired to a museum at Big Shanty.


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Posed at my hometown the day I rode behind her.

Bob

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Originally Posted by Bob Womack

a museum at Big Shanty.

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Is the engine still in running order at the museum?

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Originally Posted by Flying10uk

Is the engine still in running order at the museum?

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If you let a steam engine stand there are lots of things that just immediately begin to decay and it has been fifty-five years since she ran. Alongside that is the issue of certification of her boiler, which would have to be done. She was brought up to modern Westinghouse brake standards in the 1960s refit but I'm afraid she's stuffed and mounted at this point. They'd have to demolish part of the building in order to pull her out.

Bob

So that's where Buster Keaton got the idea.

By the way, the other locomotive involved in the chase, the Texas, operated by Confederates to catch the General, also survived the war. In 1907 she was dontaed to the City of Atlanta and since 1927 she has been housed in the basement of the Battle of Atlanta Cyclorama , a large, city-owned, cylindrical painting coupled with a layout of the battle containing hundreds of figures on scenery in the foreground, that lives in Atlanta. I visited in the '60s. By the end of the century, the building that housed the cyclorama was damaged by a storm and developed leaks that threatened the display, so actions were undertaken to rehouse the whole she-bangy. The first action in 2015 was to move the locomotive to the North Carolina Transportation Museum at the former Southern Railway's historic Spencer Shops. There a private contractor lovingly restored her to her 1880s appearance.


The locomotive and the cyclorama have been reunited at the new Atlanta History Center in Buckhead. I'm going to assume she's stuffed and mounted as well.

https://www.milsurps.com/images/impo...1612C252-1.jpg

Bob

Thanks Bob, fascinating.