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 Greetings! You are reading an article from The Mudville Gazette. To reach the front page, with all the latest news and views, click the logo above or "main" below. Thanks for stopping by! May 25, 2009 TSgt John A. ChapmanBy GreyhawkNote: Originally from February, 2005, this tribute to a hero of Operation ENDURING FREEDOM is being presented as part of Mudville's Memorial Day weekend, 2009. The Navy has announced it will name a ship for Air Force Technical Sergeant (E6) John A. Chapman.  TSgt Chapman was working special ops in Afghanistan, where on March 04, 2002 during a flight over mountainous terrain the helicopter his team was in came under fire and Navy SEAL Neil Roberts fell to the ground. Supposedly...as the helo was on final, it came under fire. An air-crewman fell off the back ramp and was dangling by his tether. Neil reached down to pull him back in. An RPG hit the nose of the helo (didn't explode) and the pilot subsequently made an evasive maneuver. Neil tumbled out (the air-crewman may have also mistakenly pulled Neil out while Neil was trying to recover him or that may have not even of happened - doesn't matter - bottom line, Neil fell from about 10ft and was on the ground alone). It is unclear as to whether or not the guys on board the helo knew that they lost a man. Helo peeled away, developed hydraulic problems, and crash-landed about a click away. Meanwhile, the heavily damaged aircraft egressed the area and made an emergency landing. TSgt Chapman contacted an AC-130 gunship to provide close-air support and a helo to extract the team and aircrew members, then volunteered to rescue Roberts from the enemy. On insertion his team made immediate contact with the enemy. The remainder of the story is best told in the citation accompanying the award of Chapman's Air Force Cross. A Service Cross is the military's second highest medal for valor in combat, surpassed only by the Medal of Honor. Since its creation in 1960, the Air Force Cross has been awarded to only 23 enlisted airmen. Chapman became the third person since the end of the Vietnam War to receive the award.
Chapman was 37. More details on the ship from the Fayetteville Observer: The cargo ship that will become the Chapman is currently named the MV Merlin and has been operating in the Mediterranean. The ship is one of seven container and roll-on/roll-off ships. The ships are used to preposition munitions in the Mediterranean, the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocena and Saipan in the western Pacific. These ships are loaded with military equipment and supplies needed for a war or other operations. The ships are positioned in key ocean areas to be able to provide equipment, fuel, and supplies around the world on short notice. Lots more links with details of the story here. As the PJ site says, ...the Pentagon called it "Operation Anaconda." The press have also referred to it as the battle at Shah-i-Kot Mountain. But the men who fought there, call it the battle on Robert's Ridge. Neil Robert's body was recovered, as were the others, and all were evacuated. The ridge is now called Roberts Ridge. (Originally posted 2005-02-25 20:06:02) Posted by Greyhawk / May 25, 2009 2:02 PM | Permalink 4 TrackBacksWASHINGTON -- Allowing airline passengers to use cellphones during flights could help potential hija Read More Tomb of the Unknowns Photo from US Memorial Day images (1993 Smithsonian Institute.) May 30 - Memorial Day was officially proclaimed in 1868 to honour those who died during the Civil War. After World War I it was changed... Read More Mark Steyn noted the passing of an important date a few days ago:A week and a half after the VE Day anniversary, here's a date that will get a lot less attention: May 19th 2005. On that day, the war... Read More ...but few will live this life: Mike Yon provides a photo documentary of a mission with the PJs. Coupled with this well-written account from Noah Shachtman, I would conclude that someone somewhere has decided to raise the profile of USAF members "in th... Read More 11 Comments |
November 26, 2010America@war [Greyhawk]
I think anyone who's ever pondered the "comment" option - once only available on blogs and bulletin boards, now ubiquitous on almost any web site - will appreciate this:
The so-called faculty of writing is not so much a faculty of writing as it is a faculty of thinking. When a man says, "I have an idea but I can't express it"; that man hasn't an idea but merely a vague feeling. If a man has a feeling of that kind, and will sit down for a half an hour and persistently try to put into writing what he feels, the probabilities are at least 90 percent that he will either be able to record it, or else realize that he has no idea at all. In either case, he will do himself a benefit. That's wisdom from the past, captured for posterity at the US Naval Institute, shared via the web on the institute's 137th anniversary. From their about page:
"The Naval Institute has three core activities," among them, History and Preservation: The Naval Institute also has recently introduced Americans at War, a living history of Americans at war in their own words and from their own experiences. These 90-second vignettes convey powerful stories of inspiration, pride, and patriotism. Take a look at the collection, and you'll see it's not limited to accounts from those who served on ships at sea, members of the other branches are well-represented. I'm fortunate to have met USNI's Mary Ripley, she's responsible for the institute's oral history program (and she's the daughter of the late John Ripley, whose story is told here). She also deserves much credit for their blog. ("We're not the Navy nor any government agency. Blog and comment freely.") We met at a milblog conference - Mary knew (and I would come to realize) that milbloggers are the 21st-century version of exactly what the US Naval Institute is all about. Once that light bulb came on in my head, I mentioned a vague idea for a project to her - milblogs as the 21st century oral history that they are. "Put that in writing," she said (of course - see first paragraph above!) - and here's part of the result. Shortly after the first tent was pitched by the American military in Iraq a wire was connected to a computer therein, and the internet was available to a generation of Americans at war - many of whom had grown up online. From that point on, at any given moment, somewhere in Iraq a Soldier, Sailor, Airman or Marine was at a keyboard sharing the events of his or her day with the folks back home. While most would simply fire off an email, others took advantage of the (then) relatively new online blogging platforms to post their thoughts and experiences for the entire world to see. The milblog was born - and from that moment to this stories detailing everything from the most mundane aspects of camp life to intense combat action (often described within hours of the event) have been available on the web... And et cetera - but since you're reading this on a milblog, you probably knew that. And you know that milblogs aren't just blogs written by troops at war, that many friends, family members, and supporters likewise documented their story of America at war online in near-real time, as those stories developed. The diversity in membership of that group is broad, the one thing we all have in common is the impulse to make sense of the seemingly senseless, and communicate the tale - for each of us that impulse was strong enough to overcome whatever barriers prevent the vast majority of people from doing the same. Everyone at some point has some vague idea they believe should be shared - we were the people who, from some combination of internal and external urging, found and spent those many half hours persistently trying to write it down. But where will all that be in another 137 years? Or five or ten, for that matter. That's something I've asked myself since at least 2004 - when I wrote this:
Membership in the ghost battalion has grown in the years since, and an ever growing majority of those abandoned-but-still-standing sites are vanishing. Have you checked out Lt Smash's site lately? How about Sgt Hook's? If you're a long-time milblog reader you know the first widely-read milblog from Operation Iraq Freedom and the first widely-read milblog from Afghanistan are both gone from the web. If you're a relative newcomer to this world you may never even have heard of them - or the dozens upon dozens of others who carried forth the standard they set down. If you have a vague notion that something should be done about that, (a notion I've heard expressed more than once...) then you and I and the good folks at the US Naval Institute are in agreement. Preserving the history documented by the milbloggers is just one of the goals of the milblog project, the once-vague idea that we're now making real. And it's a big idea, if I say so myself - too big to explain in one simple blog post, so stand by for more. Likewise, it's too big a task to be accomplished by just one person. So if you're a milblogger (and exactly what is a milblogger? is a topic for much further discussion on its own) I'm asking for your help. All I'll really need is just a little bit (maybe just one or two of those half hours...) of your time, and your willingness to tell the tale. We've already made history, it's time to save it. (More to follow...) Posted 4:02 PM | Permalink |
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The Mudville Gazette is the on-line voice of an American warrior and his wife who stands by him. They prefer to see peaceful change render force of arms unnecessary. Until that day they stand fast with those who struggle for freedom, strike for reason, and pray for a better tomorrow.
 
 
 Furthermore, I will occasionally use satire or parody herein. The bottom line: it's my house. I like having visitors to my house. I hope you are entertained. I fight for your right to free speech, and am thrilled when you exercise said rights here. Comments and e-mails are welcome, but all such communication is to be assumed to be 1)the original work of any who initiate said communication and 2)the property of the Mudville Gazette, with free use granted thereto for publication in electronic or written form. If you do NOT wish to have your message posted, write "CONFIDENTIAL" in the subject line of your email. Original content copyright © 2003 - 2011 by Greyhawk. Fair, not-for-profit use of said material by others is encouraged, as long as acknowledgement and credit is given, to include the url of the original source post. Other arrangements can be made as needed. Contact: greyhawk at mudvillegazette dot com  Tending Distant Far from hearth and home, watching What tales we'll tell When things grim Some distant sunset, vision fading Saluting fallen friends whose names - Greyhawk, Baghdad, December 2004 |
This is why this country is so great. The people like this brave man! They inspire others to do better!
Wow. Wow.
A question for those more knowledgeable than I: It sounds like Roberts was pretty heroic himself; has he received (or would he be eligible for) any kind of posthumous commendation for his actions on the ground?
Discovery Wings, now the Military Channel, has an hour long show about pararescueman in training. One of them was Cunningham. They repeat it time to time, well worth looking out for.
The only problem is he had to die. Its just sad.
There is no justice in a world where the man who lost Afghanistan and Iran to the Mad Mullahs has the most deadly submarine named after him [USS Jimmy Carter (SSN 23)] and a genuine hero who gave his life freeing Afghanistan from the Mad Mullahs has a civilian-owned container ship named after him.
too bad Carter did not go out 'at the top of his game' like, when he was governor of Georgia... He could have saved our nation islamofascism, the destruction of our intel and military, nukes in nkorea, sandinistas, hugh castro jr, haiti, angola, good heavens, the list never ends.
Plus the goober worthless appeaser is in Venezuela trying to convince the citizens of a nation that should be wealthy that castro jr is a great leader. Where does it end? Venezuela is "better" than nkorea, iran and haiti, three more chapters in the goober bio.
Sad for the talented dedicated warriors who are serving on our newest nuclear submarine. They are going to exert a lot of power for freedom, too bad about the sorry name. Hey, guys, we are proud of you!!
Interesting timing -- I haven't read this yet (it should arrive any day now) but there's a brand new book on this operation. (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0425196097/qid=1109640850/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-8771892-6831134.)
Second the comment on the inappropriate naming of the USS Jimmy Carter. What a sad excuse for a CinC! In spite of this, the bubbleheads manning this preserver of liberty are in our thoughts and prayers. May the currents off your bow guide you safely through the deep.
Hi all, I am John Chapman's sister and have always been damn proud of him. I think it's awesome that the Navy is recognizing his actions by recommissioning a ship in his name ... and he's AF! Didn't think about the fact that it's a cargo ship, but it's a huge, once-in-a-lifetime honor just the same (even though it would be VERY cool if John had a submarine named after him!). God bless military men and women and their families. I love you all.
I served with John @ Pope and even on the same team. I am out of the AF now but it saddens me to this day knowing of John's death. The naming of the ship is a great honor for him and his family.
On March 4th 2002 we lost a great American, brother and team member.
You have made me a better American. I will never forget you Chappy.
"First There"
xRed Team 24STS
my sincerest of condolances to all our Special Ops men that have lost their lives serving our Country. I had the honor and privalage to be one of few civilians to conduct green team training at the 24thSTS from '94 to '01. We helped develope and train on the REDS kit. We had the privalage of meeting both as well as Kerry.
I was deployed to NY on Sept 11, 2001 as a rescue team manager for PA-TF1 a federal Urban Search and Rescue team first on scene. We lost numerous coleeges and friends from FDNY that day. I am proud to know that you have taken the fight to our enemy but even more saddened at the personal cost.
I thank you for all your sacrifices. May God look over Jason and John's families and all of our Spec Ops members.