Thanks

I'm glad they are considering more vets from 2001-2010ish, when it was almost impossible for them to be award the MOH for some reason.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
I'm glad they are considering more vets from 2001-2010ish, when it was almost impossible for them to be award the MOH for some reason.

Concur. Or any awards. Lots of guys did lots of gnarly shit thinking they could end the war with a heroic act. Lack of recognition was a serious leadership foul.

Edit it to add, now I don’t know what to think. The following article is very long but very thorough: https://www.yahoo.com/news/nav...ehind-120002859.html

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arabiancowboy,

quote:

Originally posted by arabiancowboy:
Edit it to add, now I don’t know what to think. The following article is very long but very thorough:

I agree. For anyone interested in the matter, the article is well worth the read.

Reader's Digest version:

- Chapman was behind the lines and calling for help.

- ST6 (Slabinski) got to the injured Chapman and under fire, made the determination that Chapman was dead, and pulled back; leaving Chapman.

- After being left, Chapman got back into the fight and was eventually killed.

- SEAL's refuse to believe Chapman was not dead when they left him

- Video is eventually released that supports AF's claims

- SEAL's did not want Chapman do get MOH because it would (in their eyes) make them look bad

- Air Force do not want Slabinski to get MOH because (in their eyes) he left their man behind.

- Folks are pissed that under the muddy circumstances that the Navy would even consider writing their man up for the MOH

- Perception by many is that Navy is only doing this to "save face" for the SEAL's and balance the score. (in their eyes).

Good cliff notes. The AF case is compelling, they have amalgamated video from multiple sources, voice ID, and compared it to the original Navy narrative. The Navy is looking petty and unprofessional here.

It sounds like a completely chaotic situation where everyone did their best. These guys are all heroes. But the Navy seeking to downplay and obstruct an AF MOH which is clearly justified seems dishonorable.

Odd situation. Unprecedented.

Well, I say bully on him and his comrades!

Chief Slabinski may deserve the MOH for other actions but not for this. Per the article, per his own statements, and per detailed video from drones, he left a man behind (in the chaos of the situation he mistook the body of Roberts to be Chapman):

This is from the article in the link posted by arabiancowboy above:

"But in 2016, he told The New York Times that after giving the order to withdraw, he actually crawled over Chapman’s body in the rush to get off the mountain and saw no sign of life. “I’m already 95 percent in my mind that he’s been killed,” Slabinski said. “That’s why I was like, ‘OK, we’ve got to move.’”

However, the Predator video, which offers an uninterrupted view of Slabinski during this period, does not appear to show him crawling anywhere near Chapman. But it does show him and two other SEALs moving past the body of Neil Roberts as they begin their retreat. “They go right over him,” says the former combat controller, who is familiar with the footage. Because the SEALs never mentioned finding Roberts, some have speculated that Slabinski became disoriented and confused Roberts’s body with Chapman’s, which was only a few yards away. “It’s actually a common theory that the body that Slab believes he checked was Roberts,” says the former combat controller. “That happens to be my theory.”

The SEALs are on the peak of the mountain for less than four minutes. As they make their escape, Chapman’s body lies motionless in the first bunker for about 12 minutes. But then the footage captures movement there, even though no one has approached it since the SEALs had fled. The man in the bunker proceeds to move around and fire his weapon for about an hour. “I’m 110 percent certain that’s Chapman,” says Mike, the Air Force targeting analyst for the original mission. In a 2017 analysis of the video conducted for the Air Force and obtained by Newsweek, Mike counted 39 distinct muzzle flashes emanating from the first bunker between approximately 5:40 a.m. and 6:08 a.m. “It’s evident—you can see Chapman is definitely pulling the trigger on that M4, and rounds are coming,” he says. “I don’t know how many [militants] he took out, but it was a hell of a battle.”

Mike’s analysis notes the man in the bunker is firing in almost every direction. Chapman, he says, was desperately defending himself from enemies that had him surrounded. Twice, Al-Qaeda fighters managed to creep up on the bunker, and Chapman is seen killing them in close quarters combat. The nature of the fight and the daylight that was spreading over the mountain make it highly unlikely, the former combat controller says, that this was a case of two enemy fighters attacking each other by mistake. “They’re on top of each other,” he adds. “There’s no confusion here.”

Shortly after Chapman kills the second Al-Qaeda fighter, the Air Force claims, and moments before the helicopter carrying the Rangers arrives over the peak, he emerges from his covered position and shoots at the militants in the second bunker. This action led to his death, and is central to the Air Force’s case that he deserves the Medal of Honor. Chapman took this enormous risk to provide covering fire for the helicopter that was headed for the peak, the Air Force contends. “Sergeant Chapman understood the ramifications of his actions,” says the Air Force narrator. “He selflessly moved in front of the enemy machine gun in Bunker 2 in order to engage the threat to the inbound helicopter.”

And here is the autopsy results on Chapman and scene examination:

"In addition to the video and Jay’s witness statement, Chapman’s autopsy, which the Air Force re-analyzed as part of its investigation, also supported the case that he had fought for a sustained period on the peak. “The man was shot and fragged 16 times, to include…contusions on his face, nose, neck and hands,” says the former combat controller. Chapman’s autopsy states that all the airman’s wounds occurred before his death, he says. “That didn’t happen in the first two minutes.” The bruises to Chapman’s hands, neck and face, he adds, were likely the result of hand-to-hand combat with the two militants who made it as far as the bunker before he killed them.

A final piece of evidence supporting the Air Force’s case: According to two sources familiar with the details of Chapman’s award package, when he and his gear were recovered, he was found to have fired all his usable ammunition before succumbing to his wounds, Chapman had emptied six 30-round magazines—far more than he would have during the two minutes or less that elapsed before Slabinski saw him fall."