DO THE RIGHT THING
FALLEN AIRMAN’S SACRIFICE MUST INSPIRE YOUTH, SISTER SAYS
Springfield-born Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman — who died on an Afghan mountaintop 16 years ago but received the Medal of Honor posthumously last week — will live on as an example for American youth of selfless sacrifice and doing “the right thing,” his sister tells the Herald.
“He loved his family, he loved his country and he lived for his country,” said Lori Longfritz, the second of four Chapman siblings who grew up in Windsor Locks, Conn. “He’s in the history books now and I hope younger kids will read that and think, ‘I could live my life like that. I could live my life the way he did.’ He did the right thing when no one was looking, not expecting any accolades.
“He had a lot of good qualities,” Longfritz said of her brother. “He was not perfect, but he grew up to be an All-American hero.”
Last Wednesday, Longfritz and family members attended the ceremony at the White House, where President Trump presented the nation’s highest honor to Chapman’s widow, Valerie Nessel. Chapman was killed in 2002 while carrying out a mission to establish an observation post atop Takur Ghar mountain in Afghanistan. Dramatic video shot from an aircraft showed him charging up a mountain in a bid to save a wounded Navy SEAL, continuing to fight while wounded, killing numerous Taliban and giving the rest of his team a chance to escape, though he was killed in the effort.
At the ceremony, Trump commended Chapman’s bravery and “final act of supreme courage,” in helping save more than 20 American service members.
“It was something we’ve been waiting for, for a long time,” said Longfritz, who now lives in Cheyenne, Wyo. “If he were alive, he wouldn’t be thumping his chest or acting like he deserved attention. I think everyone would be proud to receive this award. But knowing my brother, I think he would say, ‘I’m just doing my job’ and that ‘Everyone would have done what I did.’ But I don’t know if everyone would have done the same thing. He stepped up when he could have stayed hidden.”
Also last Thursday, Chapman, the first airman since the Vietnam War to receive a Medal of Honor, was inducted into the Pentagon’s Hall of Heroes. Longfritz, who spoke at the event, said 700 people were expected but as many as 1,200 showed up. Hundreds of Air Force
Special Operatives and other service members honored Chapman by doing “memorial pushups” after the ceremony.
“It blew my mind. The ceremony was out of this world,” Longfritz said. “It was wonderful and heartwarming. We had 14-hour days and I think we slept for two days when we got back. But it was well worth it.”
Longfritz said she’s writing a book with Air Force combat air controller Dan Schilling, who fought in the Battle of Mogadishu in Somalia in 1993, which was later adopted into the 2001 film “Black Hawk Down.” Longfritz says the book, slated to come out next spring, will highlight John and his life and shine a light on the airmen who direct close air support and bombing missions in combat.
Longfritz described her brother as a “happy, carefree guy who was always upbeat.” She said he would talk to anyone and everyone and that “No matter if you were a little toddler or a World War II veteran, he made you feel like the most important person in the world at that time.”