Latest news with #BattleofTakurGhar
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
New Medal of Honor Museum stirs controversy
The sister of Medal of Honor recipient Master Sgt. John Chapman, an elite combat controller who died on a mountainside during the Battle of Takur Ghar in Afghanistan, is angered by the way the new National Medal of Honor Museum is handling her brother's story. The museum in Arlington, Texas, which pays tribute to more than 3,500 U.S. service members who have earned America's highest military honor, opens to the public on Tuesday. But a disparity in the way the museum treated the story of two recipients has reignited a controversy. Chapman's sister, Lori Longfritz, told "CBS Mornings" she believed her brother would get his own dedicated space at the museum for his heroic acts on March 4, 2002. Reigniting a controversy Chapman earned a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2018, becoming the first member of the Air Force to receive the award since the Vietnam War — and the first recipient where drone video provided evidence of his heroic actions. In one of the most intense battles of the war in Afghanistan, Chapman was working with a team of Navy SEALs who stepped off a helicopter onto the Takur Ghar mountain and into the path of enemy fire. "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," his Medal of Honor citation reads. After clearing the first bunker, killing all enemy occupants, Chapman started attacking a second bunker before being shot and seriously wounded, according to the citation. The SEAL team leader at the time, Master Chief Britt Slabinski, told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin in 2018 that he ordered his team to pull back as he "crawled over the top" of Chapman to search for "some sign of life." "I didn't get any, any sign from him," said Britt. Believing he was dead and in a dangerous spot in the middle of the ongoing firefight, Slabinski left Chapman and relocated his team to safer ground. A military analysis of drone video later showed Chapman had still been alive at that time. He had regained consciousness and carried on fighting alone, providing crucial cover fire as reinforcements tried to land. He was credited with saving more than 20 American service members, including Slabinski. "Despite severe, mortal wounds, [Chapman] continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice," the citation says. Yet more than a decade after the battle, as the Pentagon considered him for the Medal of Honor for those actions, some Navy SEALs resisted. Two former defense officials involved in the process claim the SEALs argued against Chapman posthumously receiving the award, with one telling CBS News they "couldn't accept any hint that SEALs had left behind a service member on the battlefield." It's a position Slabinski himself maintained even as he received his own Medal of Honor months before Chapman. "I can tell you, we left no one behind. No one. What I saw, what I experienced, I know that clearly that we didn't leave anyone behind up there," he said in a 2018 interview with Fox News. In a statement, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson told CBS News, "We honor the valor and heroism of all Medal of Honor recipients with the dignity and respect they deserve." The statement didn't address accusations about past opposition to Chapman's Medal of Honor, saying only that the SEALs hold him "in high regard as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his teammates. He will forever remain in our memory." "There was never going to be a John Chapman exhibit" "I do believe that there is such a thing as fog of war," Longfritz acknowledged as she spoke about her brother being left behind on the battlefield in an interview from the town of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where they grew up. Regarding Slabinski and the SEALs, she said, "I can't judge them for what they did on the mountain, what happened. I can judge them for how they've acted since then." Chapman's photo hangs on a wall near a monitor playing the drone footage at the new museum — part of a larger exhibit on the timeline of the Medal of Honor, while Slabinski is among several service members who have their own featured exhibits. Slabinski's section is filled with multiple photos and artifacts — like his field knife, ID tag, combat trousers and dress white uniform. Longfritz said representatives at the National Medal of Honor Museum led her to believe that Chapman would also be getting his own featured exhibit. However, in a lengthy statement to CBS News, the museum stated that "it is not possible to tell 3,526 stories in a museum's exhibits at one time." "There was never going to be a John Chapman exhibit," according to a former museum employee, who told CBS News the plan was to "kick this can down the road," knowing the underlying tensions between the two sides. The museum says Chapman's story is still among the most high-profile mentioned in the museum. "When evaluating individual coverage of recipients included in the exhibits by word count, Master Sergeant Chapman is among the top 25 percent," the museum added in their statement. But "word count" is not the right measure for Longfritz. "It's disgusting," said Longfritz. "I had found a way to just let it go, and then this. I didn't want this, but I'm not going anywhere now." A growing petition Many in the Air Force community see this as a problem as well. More than 25,000 people have signed an online petition demanding Chapman be given a full exhibit in the museum. It's also drawn the ire of Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran. "It's a blatant disrespect for someone who lost their life, serving this country and that wrong needs to be corrected immediately," said Luna, who supports Chapman getting his own exhibit. When asked what she believes is behind the decision, she answered that "politics played a hand in this entire Medal of Honor debacle," and pointed out that Slabinski serves on the museum's board of directors. CBS News attempted to reach Slabinski, whose wife also works at the museum, several times but never heard back. If the museum doesn't fix the disparity, Luna said she would "call to question" anyone supporting the museum "to reconsider giving funds to an organization that would play politics with people that have sacrificed their lives for this country." According to the museum, "No preference was given to board member Medal of Honor recipients and, to their great credit, it was the board member recipients who specifically asked to be treated no differently in exhibit consideration than their peers." But if the roles were reversed, Longfritz believes her brother "would be the first one to say, 'Do not honor me. This guy who died saving my life deserves it more than I do.'" "I feel like if someone is a true hero…they don't want it for themselves," she added. Sen. Rand Paul says he thinks Supreme Court will uphold the Alien Enemies Act for deportations George Clooney: The 2025 60 Minutes Interview Denzel Washington and Jake Gyllenhaal on their Broadway "Othello"
CBS News
25-03-2025
- General
- CBS News
Sister of Master Sgt. John Chapman angry over National Medal of Honor Museum's representation: "It's disgusting"
The sister of Medal of Honor recipient Master Sgt. John Chapman, an elite combat controller who died on a mountainside during the Battle of Takur Ghar in Afghanistan, is angered by the way the new National Medal of Honor Museum is handling her brother's story. The museum in Arlington, Texas, which pays tribute to more than 3,500 U.S. service members who have earned America's highest military honor, opens to the public on Tuesday. But a disparity in the way the museum treated the story of two recipients has reignited a controversy. Chapman's sister, Lori Longfritz, told "CBS Mornings" she believed her brother would get his own dedicated space at the museum for his heroic acts on March 4, 2002. Chapman earned a posthumous Medal of Honor in 2018, becoming the first member of the Air Force to receive the award since the Vietnam War — and the first recipient where drone video provided evidence of his heroic actions. In one of the most intense battles of the war in Afghanistan, Chapman was working with a team of Navy SEALs who stepped off a helicopter onto the Takur Ghar mountain and into the path of enemy fire. "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," his Medal of Honor citation reads . After clearing the first bunker, killing all enemy occupants, Chapman started attacking a second bunker before being shot and seriously wounded, according to the citation. The SEAL team leader at the time, Master Chief Britt Slabinski, told CBS News national security correspondent David Martin in 2018 that he ordered his team to pull back as he "crawled over the top" of Chapman to search for "some sign of life." "I didn't get any, any sign from him," said Britt. Believing he was dead and in a dangerous spot in the middle of the ongoing firefight, Slabinski left Chapman and relocated his team to safer ground. A military analysis of drone video later showed Chapman had still been alive at that time. He had regained consciousness and carried on fighting alone, providing crucial cover fire as reinforcements tried to land. He was credited with saving more than 20 American service members, including Slabinski. "Despite severe, mortal wounds, [Chapman] continued to fight relentlessly, sustaining a violent engagement with multiple enemy personnel before making the ultimate sacrifice," the citation says. Yet more than a decade after the battle, as the Pentagon considered him for the Medal of Honor for those actions, some Navy SEALs resisted. Two former defense officials involved in the process claim the SEALs argued against Chapman posthumously receiving the award, with one telling CBS News they "couldn't accept any hint that SEALs had left behind a service member on the battlefield." It's a position Slabinski himself maintained even as he received his own Medal of Honor months before Chapman. "I can tell you, we left no one behind. No one. What I saw, what I experienced, I know that clearly that we didn't leave anyone behind up there," he said in a 2018 interview with Fox News. In a statement, a Naval Special Warfare spokesperson told CBS News, "We honor the valor and heroism of all Medal of Honor recipients with the dignity and respect they deserve." The statement didn't address accusations about past opposition to Chapman's Medal of Honor, saying only that the SEALs hold him "in high regard as a hero who made the ultimate sacrifice for his teammates. He will forever remain in our memory." "I do believe that there is such a thing as fog of war," Longfritz acknowledged as she spoke about her brother being left behind on the battlefield in an interview from the town of Windsor Locks, Connecticut, where they grew up. Regarding Slabinski and the SEALs, she said, "I can't judge them for what they did on the mountain, what happened. I can judge them for how they've acted since then." Chapman's photo hangs on a wall near a monitor playing the drone footage at the new museum — part of a larger exhibit on the timeline of the Medal of Honor, while Slabinski is among several service members who have their own featured exhibits. Slabinski's section is filled with multiple photos and artifacts — like his field knife, ID tag, combat trousers and dress white uniform. Longfritz said representatives at the National Medal of Honor Museum led her to believe that Chapman would also be getting his own featured exhibit. However, in a lengthy statement to CBS News, the museum stated that "it is not possible to tell 3,526 stories in a museum's exhibits at one time." "There was never going to be a John Chapman exhibit," according to a former museum employee, who told CBS News the plan was to "kick this can down the road," knowing the underlying tensions between the two sides. The museum says Chapman's story is still among the most high-profile mentioned in the museum. "When evaluating individual coverage of recipients included in the exhibits by word count, Master Sergeant Chapman is among the top 25 percent," the museum added in their statement. But "word count" is not the right measure for Longfritz. "It's disgusting," said Longfritz. "I had found a way to just let it go, and then this. I didn't want this, but I'm not going anywhere now." Many in the Air Force community see this as a problem as well. More than 25,000 people have signed an online petition demanding Chapman be given a full exhibit in the museum. It's also drawn the ire of Florida Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, an Air Force veteran. "It's a blatant disrespect for someone who lost their life, serving this country and that wrong needs to be corrected immediately," said Luna, who supports Chapman getting his own exhibit. When asked what she believes is behind the decision, she answered that "politics played a hand in this entire Medal of Honor debacle," and pointed out that Slabinski serves on the museum's board of directors. CBS News attempted to reach Slabinski, whose wife also works at the museum, several times but never heard back. If the museum doesn't fix the disparity, Luna said she would "call to question" anyone supporting the museum "to reconsider giving funds to an organization that would play politics with people that have sacrificed their lives for this country." According to the museum, "No preference was given to board member Medal of Honor recipients and, to their great credit, it was the board member recipients who specifically asked to be treated no differently in exhibit consideration than their peers." But if the roles were reversed, Longfritz believes her brother "would be the first one to say, 'Do not honor me. This guy who died saving my life deserves it more than I do.'" "I feel like if someone is a true hero…they don't want it for themselves," she added.
Yahoo
04-03-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Museum exhibit controversy reignites airman's Medal of Honor dispute
A first-of-its-kind museum honoring recipients of the nation's highest combat award is set to open later this month in Arlington, Texas — but the project is already dogged by controversy and outrage amid an apparent snub to one medal recipient. A petition on behalf of the late Air Force Master Sgt. John Chapman, a combat controller whose fight to the death in thigh-deep snow during the March 4-5, 2002 Battle of Takur Ghar, Afghanistan, is among the first Medal of Honor actions caught on video, has so far gained nearly 25,000 verified signers and tens of thousands of dollars in donations to promote the cause. The petition, which is hosted on calls for the museum, a private enterprise, to create a dedicated exhibit honoring the airman. Chapman's sister and other advocates for his family say he was initially promised such an exhibit — and the family was even brought in to discuss it — but that plans were changed amid what appears to be a revival of a dark and long-standing interservice dispute. 'The omission of this crucial element from the exhibits is an ill-conceived misstep and a disservice to Chapman's memory, to his bravery and to the sacrifice he made for the nation,' the petition states. 'Please revisit this decision and consider paying fitting tribute to John Chapman in one of the 200 exhibits.' Dave Parke, a veteran of the Marines, Navy and Army who launched the petition after learning about the situation via Chapman's sister, Lori Chapman Longfritz, said he's been astounded by the still-growing response. 'There are a lot of people who are new to this topic and new to John in general, which I think is amazing,' said Parke, who has long been interested in Chapman's remarkable story. 'I think he should be a household name, so just getting people who had never heard of him before see this petition, and then, you know, start to do their own research and watch the video — that's the secondary benefit that I couldn't have imagined.' Museum officials maintain that Chapman's story will be 'included from day one,' and emphasized that stories of the 3,526 medal recipients to date will be told in rotation and in forms ranging from a photograph to a full traditional exhibit. Chapman's presence in the museum, they said, will include the drone footage that captured his last fight, and that the video will be part of the museum's permanent collection. 'We have been involved in an ongoing, iterative process of planning exhibits and building a collection of artifacts to support and enrich the museum storytelling experience,' museum CEO Chris Cassidy said in a lengthy statement provided to Military Times. Longfritz said what is set to appear in the museum honoring her brother is a far cry from what she was initially promised. She said she and Chapman's mother, Terri, were hosted at the museum site in early 2024 and told a much more elaborate permanent exhibit, including artifacts from the family, was being planned. It wasn't until last November, she said, that queries to the museum revealed the reality would be different. 'We left with high expectations, and so excited,' Longfritz told Military Times. 'And then when I was told, 'Yeah, you were misled,' I'm like, I can't, in good conscience, just let people go, spend money to go expecting to see John, and then there's nothing. So, I had to tell people.' An email exchange reviewed by Military Times includes a Jan. 6 email from a museum staffer appearing to confirm that Chapman would not be one of the 200 medal recipients featured in a full exhibit at opening, but noting his photo and the footage would be on display. Chapman's story, uniquely, is closely intertwined with that of another Medal of Honor recipient: Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt Slabinski. Both men were on the same mountain, later dubbed Roberts Ridge, and both would initially receive service crosses, the second-highest combat award for valor, for heroism in the close-quarters firefight that would unfold. Chapman, who was attached to the Navy SEAL team, and Slabinski were both inserted on the snowy ridge after another SEAL, Petty Officer First Class Neil Roberts, fell from the back of a team helicopter. Together, according to medal citations, they advanced up the mountain and entered an enemy bunker, killing all the occupants. Roberts was dead on the mountain; and Chapman decided to charge a second bunker from which a machine gunner was firing on the SEALs. During this assault, he was shot and fell, seriously wounded. What followed has been the source of great infighting and dispute. Slabinski, believing Chapman to be dead, led his team to a position of safety further down the mountain, 'carrying a seriously wounded teammate through deep snow … while calling in fire on the enemy,' according to his medal citation. But footage retrieved from a Predator drone and later analyzed showed that Chapman was not dead, and in fact became active again sometime later, mounting a fresh one-man offensive against the enemy, continuing to 'fight relentlessly' despite mortal wounds, according to his medal citation, until all his ammunition was expended and he could fight no more. Some believe Chapman's actions after the SEAL team departed qualify him for a second Medal of Honor. Yet in 2018, the White House announced that Slabinski would be the first to receive an upgrade to the Medal of Honor, despite allegations he'd left a living teammate behind on the mountain. Chapman's Medal of Honor would be awarded posthumously several months later, the first presented to an airman since the Vietnam War. Within the special operations community, the sequence of events spurred outrage and bitter infighting, with some even alleging that the close-knit and image-conscious SEAL community had advocated against Chapman's upgrade to prop up Slabinski. Slabinski now serves on the board of the National Medal of Honor Museum. And while Cassidy's statement for the museum said no preference was given to board members, and they explicitly asked for no special treatment, the episode aggravates old wounds among advocates for Chapman. Efforts to reach Slabinski for comment through the museum and the C4 Foundation, where he is also a board member, were unsuccessful. Matt Cubbler, a former Army intelligence specialist who has championed Chapman's case and investigated other instances of what he believes to be malfeasance within the SEAL community, has taken to podcasts and YouTube to make the case for a permanent exhibit for Chapman. 'It's not a matter of John getting an exhibit,' Cubbler said. 'It's a matter of the fact they continue to steal John's opportunities to be recognized for his actions by putting forward somebody who left him to die, you know? … And my goal since Lori called me about this is to get as many people angry as I possibly can.' Museum staff have not directly responded to anyone associated with the petition, Parke, Cubbler and Longfritz said. A spokeswoman, Amber MacDowell, said anyone who reaches out to the museum about the Chapman exhibit receives the same statement from Cassidy. For her part, Longfritz said she doesn't know what the museum could do at this point to make the situation right in her eyes. 'I feel really, really sad that all of this is going to overshadow those people who really, really deserve their exhibits, and they deserve to have a beautiful day of celebration,' she said. 'But this is going to be a cloud hanging over the museum, and it's of their own doing.'
