WEBVTT - John Chapman’s Dark Night 0:00:15.356 --> 0:00:24.596 Bushkin. It was March fourth, two thousand and two, fewer 0:00:24.636 --> 0:00:27.716 than six months after the World Trade Centers fell. The 0:00:27.756 --> 0:00:30.156 sun was rising on a bleak and snowy mountaintop in 0:00:30.196 --> 0:00:33.756 eastern Afghanistan. It was a little after six in the morning, 0:00:34.276 --> 0:00:38.756 and Air Force technical Sergeant John Chapman was alone in 0:00:38.956 --> 0:00:43.876 enemy territory, bleeding to death. He had been shot, he 0:00:43.956 --> 0:00:46.876 was losing strength, he was low in ammunition, and it 0:00:46.956 --> 0:00:51.276 was bitterly brutally cold. For hours in the dark, it 0:00:51.356 --> 0:00:56.556 faced off against Taliban and al Qaeda militants. He was outnumbered, outgunned, 0:00:56.676 --> 0:00:59.476 but he fought on it killed at least five men, 0:00:59.716 --> 0:01:02.476 one in hand to hand combat, and he was fending 0:01:02.516 --> 0:01:05.316 off the rest from the relative safety of a makeshift 0:01:05.316 --> 0:01:08.636 bunker basically just a shallow trench dug at the base 0:01:08.676 --> 0:01:11.756 of a tree, keeping his head down, trying to survive 0:01:11.836 --> 0:01:17.956 until reinforcements would arrive, he hoped. Suddenly, the unmistakable sound 0:01:17.996 --> 0:01:21.116 of a helicopter filled the air. A black Chinook appeared 0:01:21.116 --> 0:01:24.716 on the horizon. Back up was finally here, but Chapman 0:01:24.956 --> 0:01:27.716 had seen what happened to helicopters had tried to land 0:01:27.756 --> 0:01:31.196 on this mountain. The two previous ones, including the one 0:01:31.196 --> 0:01:33.996 that brought him here, had been hit hard by enemy fire. 0:01:34.676 --> 0:01:37.996 He knew the men on that helicopter might die unless 0:01:38.796 --> 0:01:42.876 he could do something. He had two options, stay where 0:01:42.916 --> 0:01:47.996 he was not exactly safe but safer, or he could 0:01:48.076 --> 0:01:51.076 venture out into the open to try and provide covering 0:01:51.116 --> 0:01:54.116 fire for the helicopter to try and save those men. 0:01:55.236 --> 0:01:58.276 The snow around him was drenched in blood, his and 0:01:58.316 --> 0:02:02.636 the man he'd killed. He shouldered his assault rifle, and then, 0:02:03.236 --> 0:02:05.716 looking out into the thin light of the morning sun, 0:02:06.756 --> 0:02:12.196 he stood up. I'm Malcolm Gladwell, and this is Medal 0:02:12.196 --> 0:02:15.636 of Honor Stories of Courage. The Medal of Honor is 0:02:15.636 --> 0:02:19.476 the highest military decoration in the United States, awarded for 0:02:19.956 --> 0:02:23.356 gallantry and bravery in combat at the risk of life, 0:02:23.636 --> 0:02:27.516 above and beyond the call of duty. Each candidate must 0:02:27.596 --> 0:02:30.076 be approved all the way up the chain of command, 0:02:30.356 --> 0:02:33.796 from the supervisory officer in the field to the White House. 0:02:34.676 --> 0:02:38.676 This show is about those heroes, what they did, what 0:02:38.796 --> 0:02:41.916 it meant, and what their stories tell us about the 0:02:41.996 --> 0:02:46.716 nature of courage and sacrifice. John Chapman's story is the 0:02:46.796 --> 0:02:49.276 last one we will tell this season, and more than 0:02:49.316 --> 0:02:52.396 any other, it tells us why the Medal of Honor 0:02:52.476 --> 0:02:57.316 is so important. It's the story that reveals an essential truth. 0:02:58.036 --> 0:03:02.276 The medal isn't really for the recipients themselves. Those heroes 0:03:02.596 --> 0:03:04.836 would insist that their acts of bravery don't need an 0:03:04.836 --> 0:03:09.116 audience or accolades. They would say, as doctor Mary Walker famous, 0:03:09.196 --> 0:03:12.836 he did, I could not do otherwise. It's not for them. 0:03:13.756 --> 0:03:16.116 The medal of Honor is for the rest of us, 0:03:16.756 --> 0:03:20.636 to remind us of our human capacity for bravery and 0:03:20.716 --> 0:03:24.476 self sacrifice, and to show us that even if those 0:03:24.516 --> 0:03:29.636 acts of courage are unseen, invisible to others, they still matter. 0:03:30.596 --> 0:03:46.596 They maybe even matter more. When John Chapman was growing 0:03:46.676 --> 0:03:50.276 up in the little town of Windsorlocks, Connecticut, his mom, Terry, 0:03:50.356 --> 0:03:54.516 noticed something different about him. He was, even as a kid, 0:03:54.956 --> 0:03:57.076 strangely attuned to other people. 0:03:57.716 --> 0:04:01.196 He was born with this ability to sense people's feelings 0:04:01.236 --> 0:04:04.676 or sense when people were in need of help. He 0:04:04.756 --> 0:04:09.236 always put others before himself. He felt that that's that's 0:04:09.236 --> 0:04:09.876 the right thing to do. 0:04:10.996 --> 0:04:14.036 John was a standout athlete, a soccer star, and a 0:04:14.076 --> 0:04:17.796 state champion diver. A well loved kid with an easy laugh, 0:04:18.436 --> 0:04:21.036 square jawed and handsome, he could have been the worst 0:04:21.116 --> 0:04:23.996 kind of popular high school boy, but John had a 0:04:23.996 --> 0:04:27.396 distaste for social clicks and bullies. He had a way 0:04:27.436 --> 0:04:31.236 of making other people feel comfortable and to drive to 0:04:31.276 --> 0:04:34.196 push himself hard to do good in the world. 0:04:34.796 --> 0:04:38.116 His senior year book quote was give up yourself before 0:04:38.156 --> 0:04:39.076 taking of others. 0:04:40.356 --> 0:04:42.556 He went to college for a semester, but it was 0:04:42.596 --> 0:04:45.916 clear he wanted a different kind of challenge. He dropped 0:04:45.916 --> 0:04:49.596 out and repaired cars while he fixated on his next step, 0:04:50.156 --> 0:04:53.596 joining the Air Force. Within a few years of enlisting, 0:04:53.796 --> 0:04:57.036 he had another higher goal. He wanted to become a 0:04:57.156 --> 0:05:04.236 combat controller. Combat controllers, or CCTs are battlefield experts who 0:05:04.276 --> 0:05:07.196 in bed with the lead forces, the Navy Seals or 0:05:07.236 --> 0:05:10.356 the Army rangers and call in air strikes from the field. 0:05:11.076 --> 0:05:13.996 It's a key role in any dangerous mission, going into 0:05:13.996 --> 0:05:16.796 a combat zone and working as an on the ground 0:05:16.916 --> 0:05:21.036 air traffic controller triangulating bombers and drones under the most 0:05:21.036 --> 0:05:26.596 intense pressure. CCTs go through grueling months of training, not 0:05:26.916 --> 0:05:29.636 just for the technical skills they need, but also to 0:05:29.716 --> 0:05:34.836 prepare for every kind of hostile environment. They learned combat diving, 0:05:35.316 --> 0:05:40.076 wilderness survival, any special tactic you can imagine only a 0:05:40.116 --> 0:05:44.276 small percentage make it through. The few who succeed are 0:05:44.316 --> 0:05:49.636 ready to deploy undetected to establish assault zones behind enemy lines. 0:05:50.236 --> 0:05:54.956 Their motto is first there. Of the one hundred and 0:05:54.956 --> 0:05:57.716 twenty men who signed up for training when John did, 0:05:58.036 --> 0:06:03.236 only two became CCTs. John, of course, was one of 0:06:03.276 --> 0:06:07.956 those two, and soon thereafter he qualified for the twenty 0:06:07.956 --> 0:06:12.316 fourth Special Tactic Squadron, the most elite of the elite 0:06:12.956 --> 0:06:16.636 of the Air Force. At the same time as John 0:06:16.676 --> 0:06:19.676 was honing his lethal skills at work, he was creating 0:06:19.716 --> 0:06:22.556 a safe haven of a home life in a small 0:06:22.596 --> 0:06:26.396 house in North Carolina with his wife, Valerie, and two 0:06:26.476 --> 0:06:32.356 little girls, Madison and Brianna. Valerie remembers how all in 0:06:32.516 --> 0:06:33.436 he was as a father. 0:06:34.116 --> 0:06:35.756 You didn't know if he just came off a training mission, 0:06:35.796 --> 0:06:38.196 and you know, he'd walks the door and he was daddy. 0:06:38.316 --> 0:06:41.436 He was bathing the girls, playing barbie dolls with them, 0:06:41.476 --> 0:06:44.156 reading them bedtime stories he used to love. 0:06:44.236 --> 0:06:44.396 You know. 0:06:44.396 --> 0:06:45.996 After the bath, he'd wrap them up in a towel 0:06:46.116 --> 0:06:48.636 and swing them and throw them onto the couch. And 0:06:48.756 --> 0:06:51.916 he was just fully present hundred percent of the time. 0:06:52.236 --> 0:06:54.076 I mean, you never would know what he was trained to. 0:06:54.076 --> 0:06:57.316 Do what he was trained to do, of course, was 0:06:57.476 --> 0:07:00.196 annihilate the enemy. But for a while in the late 0:07:00.316 --> 0:07:03.516 nineteen nineties, it looked like he might not put those 0:07:03.556 --> 0:07:06.796 skills to the test in an American war. By the 0:07:06.796 --> 0:07:11.116 age of thirty six, John and realized he might never 0:07:11.156 --> 0:07:16.236 go to battle. Then came nine to eleven. We all 0:07:16.276 --> 0:07:18.156 remember watching it on the news that day. 0:07:18.476 --> 0:07:22.156 And you can see the two towers, a huge explosion 0:07:22.236 --> 0:07:24.876 now raiding to pray on all of us, we never get. 0:07:24.716 --> 0:07:25.236 Out of the bank. 0:07:25.836 --> 0:07:30.476 The unthinkable happened today the World Trade Center, both towers gone, 0:07:30.516 --> 0:07:32.716 and we are all witnesses to it, and to some 0:07:32.756 --> 0:07:33.996 degree we are all victims. 0:07:34.076 --> 0:07:36.836 This conflict was begun on the timing in terms of others. 0:07:37.636 --> 0:07:39.956 It will end in a way, and at an hour 0:07:40.956 --> 0:07:41.676 of our choosing. 0:07:42.916 --> 0:07:47.396 The first major American military operation in Afghanistan took place 0:07:47.436 --> 0:07:50.836 in March of two thousand and two in the Shycote Valley, 0:07:51.116 --> 0:07:55.916 a roughly sixty square mile area ringed with rocky, snowcapped mountains. 0:07:56.716 --> 0:08:00.956 The US forces called it Operation Anaconda because the idea 0:08:01.076 --> 0:08:04.396 was to squeeze the joint Taliban and Al Kaeda forces 0:08:04.476 --> 0:08:09.076 in the valley, but the situation was more treacherous than anticipated. 0:08:09.636 --> 0:08:13.476 The terrain was difficult, the snow waist deep, the weather 0:08:13.676 --> 0:08:18.116 unimaginably cold, and the enemy almost tripled the size expected. 0:08:18.556 --> 0:08:22.716 Well armed, well trained, and dug into the higher elevations. 0:08:23.316 --> 0:08:27.756 Even history was on Afghanistan's side. Afghan fighters in this 0:08:27.916 --> 0:08:32.156 valley had battled back invading forces for two thousand years, 0:08:32.636 --> 0:08:37.196 from Alexander the Great to the Soviet Army. On the 0:08:37.276 --> 0:08:40.916 night of March fourth, a group of Navy seals sealed 0:08:40.916 --> 0:08:43.516 to him six which would famously go on to kill 0:08:43.556 --> 0:08:47.036 Osama bin Lauden. Ready to enter the fight, they were 0:08:47.076 --> 0:08:50.916 led by a quiet and wiry senior chief named Britt Slabinsky. 0:08:51.716 --> 0:08:55.716 Their combat controller was John Chapman. The two men had 0:08:55.796 --> 0:08:58.876 worked together since the previous October, and John and the 0:08:58.916 --> 0:09:03.396 seals were a well integrated team, all more than ready 0:09:03.396 --> 0:09:06.436 to get into the action. They'd been waiting in Afghanistan 0:09:06.876 --> 0:09:10.076 for over a month by now. Their mission was to 0:09:10.116 --> 0:09:13.196 go to a mountain called Takergar on the southern side 0:09:13.196 --> 0:09:15.956 of the shy Coote Valley and secure an area of 0:09:15.996 --> 0:09:19.196 operations from which they could call in air strikes on 0:09:19.476 --> 0:09:23.276 enemy forces. They would do this under the cover of darkness, 0:09:24.036 --> 0:09:26.276 fly by helicopter to the base of the mountain in 0:09:26.356 --> 0:09:30.036 the middle of the night, then stealthily ascend to the 0:09:30.076 --> 0:09:33.396 ten thousand foot summit, giving them a chance to see 0:09:33.516 --> 0:09:38.116 exactly what they were up against before anyone noticed them. 0:09:38.556 --> 0:09:42.196 But that tightly formulated plan was about to hit some 0:09:42.356 --> 0:09:48.596 insurmountable obstacles. First, the helicopter they were supposed to use 0:09:48.636 --> 0:09:51.756 that night had a faulty engine. The team had to 0:09:51.796 --> 0:09:55.796 call in a replacement, costing precious time. It became clear 0:09:55.836 --> 0:09:58.196 to his Slebinski that if they hiked to the top 0:09:58.236 --> 0:10:01.516 of the mountainous planned, they would arrive after the sun 0:10:01.556 --> 0:10:06.556 of prison too exposed, too dangerous, so he asked command 0:10:06.876 --> 0:10:10.876 if he could delay the mission for twenty four Their 0:10:10.996 --> 0:10:16.756 quest was denied. Instead, it was decided that their helicopter 0:10:16.796 --> 0:10:20.276 would land at the top of Takogar rather than the base, 0:10:21.076 --> 0:10:24.796 announcing themselves instantly to anyone who happened to be on 0:10:24.796 --> 0:10:27.916 the mountain. They didn't know exactly what was up there, 0:10:28.116 --> 0:10:30.716 but they knew they were enemy soldiers on many of 0:10:30.756 --> 0:10:35.876 those mountains, and those soldiers were ready to fight. But 0:10:35.996 --> 0:10:40.076 an order was an order, So at two fifty five am, 0:10:40.316 --> 0:10:43.876 the team loaded into a Chinook helicopter and headed for 0:10:43.916 --> 0:10:48.276 the peak. Here's Slabinsky remembering. 0:10:48.436 --> 0:10:53.076 Soon as we landed, our helicopter came under rocket RPG, 0:10:53.236 --> 0:10:56.476 rocket prolgrenade fire, and heavy machine got fire. 0:10:57.316 --> 0:11:01.036 Another combat controller, Jay Hill, was on a different mountain, 0:11:01.316 --> 0:11:04.236 just a few kilometers away, with a view of Takagar. 0:11:04.796 --> 0:11:07.596 He watched as a Chinook carrying the Seals and John 0:11:08.076 --> 0:11:12.116 was hit with a rocket propelled grenade, then another and another, 0:11:12.556 --> 0:11:14.196 screaming through the night sky. 0:11:14.516 --> 0:11:15.956 And as soon as it sat down on top of 0:11:15.956 --> 0:11:19.996 the mountain top, we saw the RPG strike the aircraft. 0:11:20.476 --> 0:11:23.556 In the aircraft move towards the valley. 0:11:24.436 --> 0:11:27.876 Slabinsky realized they were in deep trouble and ordered the 0:11:27.876 --> 0:11:32.276 helicopter to retreat. But as the damage Chinnook lifted off again, 0:11:32.756 --> 0:11:35.636 it started shaking and rolling, and a member of his 0:11:35.716 --> 0:11:39.796 seal team, Petty Officer Neil Roberts, lost his footing and 0:11:39.916 --> 0:11:44.236 slid down the open ramp into the darkness and onto 0:11:44.316 --> 0:11:45.756 the snowy peak of Takragar. 0:11:46.876 --> 0:11:49.476 I knew Neil was in trouble. I knew he was 0:11:49.556 --> 0:11:52.316 in the midst of the enemy and numerically superior force 0:11:52.796 --> 0:11:55.996 they had me out gunned. They were at extreme altitudes, 0:11:56.036 --> 0:12:00.156 we were in extreme temperatures and pretty much opering at 0:12:00.196 --> 0:12:03.356 the extreme end of all aircraft capabilities. 0:12:03.916 --> 0:12:06.116 But the Seals, of course have a motto leave no 0:12:06.236 --> 0:12:09.036 man behind. So as soon as the mangled Chinnook save 0:12:09.396 --> 0:12:12.636 crash landed, Slabinsky and the team started making plans to 0:12:12.676 --> 0:12:16.956 go back and get Roberts. Knowing what awaited them at. 0:12:16.876 --> 0:12:20.596 The top of Takagar, I made the decision that we're 0:12:20.596 --> 0:12:23.796 going to make an immediate rescue attempt to go back 0:12:23.836 --> 0:12:24.476 and get Neil. 0:12:25.836 --> 0:12:28.836 John Chapman was all in. He didn't have to go back, 0:12:29.236 --> 0:12:31.716 but he was part of the team. He wouldn't think 0:12:31.716 --> 0:12:36.156 of staying behind. Chief Master Sergeant Rob Harrison was there 0:12:36.316 --> 0:12:39.876 as part of a gunship crew providing reconnaissance and air strikes. 0:12:40.236 --> 0:12:43.076 Like all the men, he knew how dangerous this mission 0:12:43.116 --> 0:12:43.476 would be. 0:12:44.156 --> 0:12:45.996 These guys knew that they were going right back into 0:12:45.996 --> 0:12:48.556 the same spot that their original aircraft was shot up 0:12:48.796 --> 0:12:50.636 and they lost a teammate out of the back end 0:12:50.636 --> 0:12:54.716 of the helicopter. So these guys, they knew what risk 0:12:54.836 --> 0:12:57.716 they were facing, and they charged right back in there 0:12:57.796 --> 0:12:59.036 to save one of their very own. 0:12:59.996 --> 0:13:03.396 By now it was four thirty five am, still dark, 0:13:03.756 --> 0:13:07.156 but not for long. The seals in John were outfitted 0:13:07.356 --> 0:13:11.076 with night vision goggles for red strobe lights and laser 0:13:11.116 --> 0:13:14.596 sights on their rifles, Otherwise they would be completing this 0:13:14.676 --> 0:13:19.236 mission in total darkness, another dangerous layer to an already 0:13:19.316 --> 0:13:23.116 lethal errand. As the new helicopter rose into the frigid 0:13:23.196 --> 0:13:27.596 night sky, Slabinsky felt the enormity of what was ahead 0:13:27.596 --> 0:13:27.876 of them. 0:13:28.436 --> 0:13:31.636 I remember got my night vision goggles on and everything's 0:13:31.676 --> 0:13:34.116 green looking through my goggles to stick my head, but 0:13:34.316 --> 0:13:37.316 have outside the aircraft to look at my mouth coming 0:13:37.396 --> 0:13:41.476 up that I'm getting ready to go fight on. And 0:13:41.556 --> 0:13:43.116 I'm looking at it and I'm like, Wow, what a 0:13:43.156 --> 0:13:47.236 majestic mountain. This thing looks like. Ah, And now what 0:13:47.396 --> 0:13:50.476 a crazy thought about what we're a ready getting to 0:13:50.516 --> 0:13:52.036 go do looking at this thing. 0:13:52.836 --> 0:13:56.356 The helicopter didn't have enough fuel for a reconnaissance pass 0:13:56.396 --> 0:13:59.196 over the mountain, and they couldn't drop mortars on the 0:13:59.236 --> 0:14:02.476 waiting enemy for fear of harming Roberts. They would just 0:14:02.556 --> 0:14:06.356 have to go in themselves. Six men on the mountain 0:14:06.636 --> 0:14:09.676 and above them an air Force gunship ready a fire 0:14:09.796 --> 0:14:13.076 on the enemy. Once John gave the call, plus a 0:14:13.196 --> 0:14:18.956 US Predator drone silently recording the action. As the Chinook landed, 0:14:19.196 --> 0:14:22.556 it was immediately slammed by enemy fire, just as the 0:14:22.596 --> 0:14:26.276 first helicopter had been, but this time the seals in 0:14:26.396 --> 0:14:29.436 John dove off the chopper into the knee deep snow. 0:14:30.636 --> 0:14:33.796 Over the roar of the helicopter's rotors, they could hear 0:14:33.836 --> 0:14:35.676 the sound of enemy machine guns. 0:14:36.516 --> 0:14:39.796 I asked John, say, John, what do you have? He said, 0:14:40.036 --> 0:14:42.836 you know, I don't know. And then right away we 0:14:42.916 --> 0:14:47.716 started taking heavy fire from a bunker that was right 0:14:47.756 --> 0:14:48.516 in front of us. 0:14:49.076 --> 0:14:51.516 John could see that the enemy had the advantage of 0:14:51.516 --> 0:14:54.756 the high ground and positions that were dug into the rocky, 0:14:54.956 --> 0:15:00.076 snowy terrain. Even without night vision goggles, enemy soldiers would 0:15:00.076 --> 0:15:01.916 be able to pick off the members of his team. 0:15:02.316 --> 0:15:05.036 John needed a protected spot to set up his gear 0:15:05.436 --> 0:15:08.916 and call in airstrikes. He decided that he had to 0:15:08.916 --> 0:15:12.316 get to the bunker and clear it, whatever the cost. 0:15:13.276 --> 0:15:17.156 So John didn't hesitate. He ran uphill towards the bunker, 0:15:17.316 --> 0:15:21.076 which was dug underneath a solitary tree. His heart was 0:15:21.116 --> 0:15:24.796 pounding in the thin atmosphere. He held his MFOL rifle 0:15:24.796 --> 0:15:29.556 against his shoulder, firing and firing again. He was first 0:15:29.636 --> 0:15:33.356 up the mountain through the blackness into the fire, breaking 0:15:33.396 --> 0:15:36.636 a trail to the heavy inches of snow, never looking back. 0:15:37.436 --> 0:15:39.396 Slabinski followed behind. 0:15:40.476 --> 0:15:42.916 As I look around, there's all these all these mozo 0:15:42.956 --> 0:15:45.756 flashes from everywhere, and I'm thinking there's a lot of 0:15:45.756 --> 0:15:48.836 people up here. There's well, it's snapping by our heads, 0:15:48.876 --> 0:15:52.396 like little snapping, and you can see puffs of snow 0:15:52.476 --> 0:15:53.596 coming up all around us. 0:15:54.356 --> 0:15:57.876 Inside the makeshift bunker, two fighters sat in the dark. 0:15:58.356 --> 0:16:02.036 John materialized out of the night and shot them both. 0:16:02.876 --> 0:16:06.636 Slabinski joined him in the bunker. It provided some shelter, 0:16:07.076 --> 0:16:09.836 but shots were still blazing in from a second bunker 0:16:10.236 --> 0:16:13.276 twenty five feet away, strafing the two men and the 0:16:13.316 --> 0:16:17.556 four other seals on the mountain. Both John and Slabinsky 0:16:17.756 --> 0:16:21.356 fired back, centering the laser points of their rifles on 0:16:21.436 --> 0:16:24.676 the muzzle flashes they saw in the darkness. Moving out 0:16:24.676 --> 0:16:28.796 of the bunker to expose themselves to danger again and again. 0:16:29.996 --> 0:16:34.836 Above them, that predator drone hovered invisible. Its pilot was 0:16:34.876 --> 0:16:37.996 fifteen hundred miles away. His role was to watch what 0:16:38.076 --> 0:16:40.756 was happening on the mountain and report what he saw 0:16:40.836 --> 0:16:44.476 to the gunship crew. The footage was grainy, just the 0:16:44.516 --> 0:16:48.156 heat signatures of bodies moving through space. The pilot couldn't 0:16:48.156 --> 0:16:50.596 tell who was who, but the drone had captured the 0:16:50.636 --> 0:16:53.716 shapes of the men as they had exited the helicopter 0:16:54.276 --> 0:16:58.516 as they engaged the enemy. A silent witness to what 0:16:58.556 --> 0:17:03.716 was happening on Taka Gar Now just outside the bunker, 0:17:04.196 --> 0:17:08.076 an al Qaeda fighter charged to John from the right, firing. 0:17:08.636 --> 0:17:11.836 John went towards him out of the bunker. He shot 0:17:11.836 --> 0:17:15.196 his rifle and the fighter fell. But before John could 0:17:15.236 --> 0:17:18.876 sight another target, the sound of machine gun fire caught 0:17:18.916 --> 0:17:23.116 the darkness. John was thrown backwards into the snow, shot 0:17:23.156 --> 0:17:27.716 twice in the torso. For Britz Slabinski, it was becoming 0:17:27.796 --> 0:17:31.076 clear that the mission's goal had to change. He had 0:17:31.116 --> 0:17:33.676 come to save one man, and now it seemed like 0:17:33.716 --> 0:17:36.876 he had lost another. He knew John was down. He 0:17:36.916 --> 0:17:39.436 was lying ten feet away outside of the bunker, but 0:17:39.476 --> 0:17:43.516 Slebinsky could see the laser of John's rifle pointing against 0:17:43.556 --> 0:17:48.076 the tree, rising and falling with his breath, and then 0:17:48.676 --> 0:17:53.956 John's laser stopped moving. Slobinsky concluded he must be dead. 0:17:55.236 --> 0:17:58.116 In the meantime, the other seals were getting picked off 0:17:58.116 --> 0:18:00.876 in the dark, two of them seriously wounded. They had 0:18:00.916 --> 0:18:04.916 to retreat or Slobinsky was sure they would all end 0:18:04.996 --> 0:18:05.676 up like John. 0:18:06.556 --> 0:18:08.556 I look around at all my guys again and I 0:18:08.596 --> 0:18:10.916 see there still heavy amounts of fire come in. I 0:18:10.996 --> 0:18:13.796 look over at John. I'm seeing no movement from John. 0:18:13.876 --> 0:18:17.116 And I realized that because we're out in the open 0:18:17.996 --> 0:18:21.156 life expectancy now, it's going to be measured, probably in second. 0:18:21.236 --> 0:18:23.116 So I make the command that we're going to reposition 0:18:23.196 --> 0:18:25.956 my force just over the side of the cliff. 0:18:26.596 --> 0:18:30.596 The five remaining seals huddled together then retreated as quickly 0:18:30.636 --> 0:18:33.676 as they could, sliding down the snow and over the 0:18:33.716 --> 0:18:36.516 side of the ridge. They would group further down the 0:18:36.516 --> 0:18:40.956 mountain and call for reinforcements. It was five ten am, 0:18:40.996 --> 0:18:44.556 fifteen minutes into the mission. As soon as the sun rose, 0:18:44.996 --> 0:18:47.996 they would be in even more trouble, no longer able 0:18:48.036 --> 0:18:52.716 to hide in the dark. The Predator drone still harbored above. 0:18:52.996 --> 0:18:55.156 On his screen, its pilot could see the shape of 0:18:55.156 --> 0:18:58.196 a still warm body under a tree. He watched as 0:18:58.196 --> 0:19:01.676 another group of figures came together below the bunker and 0:19:01.716 --> 0:19:05.476 then dropped one by one down the snowy ledge pick 0:19:05.556 --> 0:19:10.396 slated shapes moving in the pre dawn night. John Chapman 0:19:10.596 --> 0:19:12.596 had rushed to the bunker to save the seals on 0:19:12.716 --> 0:19:15.876 his team. Now he lay motionless and alone in the snow. 0:19:16.876 --> 0:19:19.156 For a moment, everything was quiet at the peak of 0:19:19.236 --> 0:19:24.556 Taco Gar, a freezing wind, a silent predator drone overhead. 0:19:25.716 --> 0:19:29.436 But just five minutes later something changed. Back at the 0:19:29.436 --> 0:19:33.476 peak where those two bunkers were, the drone picked up movement. 0:19:33.876 --> 0:19:37.156 The main element had withdrawn a couple hundred meters, but 0:19:37.396 --> 0:19:40.356 all of a sudden, at the original point there was 0:19:40.396 --> 0:19:41.836 an iron strobe active again. 0:19:42.556 --> 0:19:46.156 At the top of Taco Gar, an infrared strobe worn 0:19:46.236 --> 0:20:05.356 by an American came alive. We'll be right back. John 0:20:05.436 --> 0:20:09.116 Chapman was lying in the snow, his legs crumpled beneath him, 0:20:09.676 --> 0:20:13.076 alone at the peak of Takregar. His team was certain 0:20:13.156 --> 0:20:15.996 he was dead. He had taken two gunshot wounds to 0:20:16.036 --> 0:20:20.356 his torso, but he was alive. Because John was alone, 0:20:20.636 --> 0:20:23.076 it's impossible to know what he was thinking, how he 0:20:23.156 --> 0:20:27.316 felt in those moments when he regained consciousness. Pain, certainly, 0:20:27.956 --> 0:20:30.716 but also a jolt back to where he was. His 0:20:30.836 --> 0:20:34.716 purpose there to protect what remained of his team to 0:20:34.836 --> 0:20:37.436 move back into the safety of the bunker and to 0:20:37.516 --> 0:20:40.516 call for air support, as he had been trained to do. 0:20:41.636 --> 0:20:44.316 His frozen fingers must have fumbled with the radio he 0:20:44.356 --> 0:20:47.756 had strapped to his chest. He switched it to a 0:20:47.756 --> 0:20:52.356 battlefield common frequency, and then he spoke using his call sign, 0:20:53.116 --> 0:20:58.236 any station, any station, this is MAKO three zero Charlie 0:20:58.676 --> 0:21:02.876 three kilometers away. His fellow combat controller, j Hill heard 0:21:02.916 --> 0:21:06.836 it and responded, but only static came back over the radio. 0:21:07.556 --> 0:21:11.196 John called again and again, but he never heard Jay's responses. 0:21:11.596 --> 0:21:14.636 It's not clear if they ever reached him. Anyway, he 0:21:14.756 --> 0:21:17.836 had bigger issues for one thing, the enemy now knew 0:21:17.876 --> 0:21:21.516 he was there for another. Once Slebinsky had left the peak, 0:21:22.036 --> 0:21:23.676 he had been able to call the air strikes to 0:21:23.716 --> 0:21:26.956 the top of Takergar, not realizing that John was alive 0:21:27.036 --> 0:21:31.116 up there. John crouched in the bunker as the American 0:21:31.156 --> 0:21:36.196 gunship fired rounds down on the mountain. Undeterred, the enemy 0:21:36.196 --> 0:21:41.676 fighters stalked closer to John's position. The Predator drone hovered overhead, 0:21:41.836 --> 0:21:44.796 but to anyone watching it wasn't clear what it showed. 0:21:45.476 --> 0:21:49.676 It was just anonymous shapes moving on a screen. Two 0:21:49.716 --> 0:21:53.636 al Qaeda fighters rushed the bunker and John shot them. 0:21:53.876 --> 0:21:56.756 He engaged another in hand to hand combat. Now, in 0:21:56.796 --> 0:22:00.396 addition to the two gunshot wounds, his face was battered, 0:22:01.276 --> 0:22:04.396 he had shrapnel in his arms, but still he fought 0:22:04.436 --> 0:22:09.236 on the sun slowly crept up above the horizon. His 0:22:09.276 --> 0:22:14.276 ammunition dwindled, and then just after six a m. John 0:22:14.316 --> 0:22:17.716 heard the rotors of a helicopter beating against the sky. 0:22:18.676 --> 0:22:22.756 Slabinsky had called in a Quick Reaction Force or QRF 0:22:23.076 --> 0:22:25.316 to come to the aid of his remaining group of seals, 0:22:25.996 --> 0:22:29.276 But now this helicopter full of eighteen men was going 0:22:29.316 --> 0:22:32.196 to land right in the middle of the hornet's nest, 0:22:32.756 --> 0:22:36.556 just as the tube before it had. Major G. Brown 0:22:37.036 --> 0:22:41.116 was the combat controller on that Shinnuk. He remembers it clearly. 0:22:41.876 --> 0:22:42.876 Sun was coming up. 0:22:43.156 --> 0:22:44.236 It was just about dawn. 0:22:44.596 --> 0:22:47.476 We did one pass over the mountain top, and on 0:22:47.516 --> 0:22:49.916 that second pass we began to flare to land. 0:22:50.876 --> 0:22:53.476 John knew what would happen to that helicopter as soon 0:22:53.516 --> 0:22:55.916 as it got close, and he knew that he had 0:22:55.956 --> 0:22:58.876 to draw fire away from it. He was taking cover 0:22:59.036 --> 0:23:02.756 in that bunker, likely shaking from blood loss and exhaustion 0:23:03.196 --> 0:23:06.956 and exposure to the freezing temperatures, but he was still alive, 0:23:07.396 --> 0:23:09.956 and as long as he was alive, he was going 0:23:09.996 --> 0:23:10.916 to protect those men. 0:23:12.396 --> 0:23:16.476 He knew the very immediate danger he was in. 0:23:17.156 --> 0:23:20.676 Lieutenant Colonel Ken Rodriguez wasn't on tacker Gar, but he 0:23:20.756 --> 0:23:23.996 knew John who he was as a man and as 0:23:23.996 --> 0:23:27.236 an airman. He was John's commander in the Elite twenty 0:23:27.276 --> 0:23:28.956 fourth Special Tech Squadron. 0:23:29.796 --> 0:23:34.076 He's already been wounded multiple times, and now he sees 0:23:34.356 --> 0:23:38.516 the helicopter, the quick reaction helicopter coming in, and he 0:23:39.196 --> 0:23:42.796 came out from cover and exposed himself to very accurate 0:23:42.916 --> 0:23:46.716 enemy fire. Now John's would never say I know for 0:23:46.756 --> 0:23:48.756 a fact I won't get through this. John was a 0:23:48.836 --> 0:23:51.236 very much I'll do whatever I can to get through this. 0:23:51.636 --> 0:23:54.556 But he knew in his hardest hearts. I'm convinced he 0:23:54.636 --> 0:23:58.836 knew what kind of danger he was exposing himself to. 0:23:59.156 --> 0:24:03.236 The enormous risk that he placed himself in when he 0:24:03.556 --> 0:24:06.836 stepped out to defend that quick reaction for his helicopter 0:24:07.156 --> 0:24:08.836 and the lives of the men on board. 0:24:09.876 --> 0:24:13.076 Roughly an hour after he had woken up alone on 0:24:13.156 --> 0:24:16.636 the peak of Takagar, John Chapman stood in the early 0:24:16.676 --> 0:24:20.956 morning light. He shouldered his rifle. Then he slid down 0:24:20.996 --> 0:24:24.516 the slope, legs in front of him, firing rounds in 0:24:24.556 --> 0:24:28.596 a desperate attempt to protect the helicopter. He watched as 0:24:28.596 --> 0:24:31.996 the Chinook was hit by an RPG. He fired the 0:24:32.116 --> 0:24:36.476 last of his ammunition, and then he was shot through 0:24:36.476 --> 0:24:40.396 the heart. He fell back onto the snow for the 0:24:40.436 --> 0:24:46.476 second time that morning. He was dead. Nobody on the 0:24:46.516 --> 0:24:50.276 helicopter saw John fall. They weren't looking for him, after all, 0:24:50.676 --> 0:24:53.996 they believed he had died long before John did what 0:24:54.116 --> 0:24:58.596 he did invisibly. No one knew then what sacrifice he 0:24:58.636 --> 0:25:02.116