U.S. Airman Left For Dead By A SEAL Team 6 Unit Was Actually Alive And Fought Alone In A 2002 Battle Against Al Qaeda

Tech. Sgt. John Chapman is being considered for the Medal of Honor. (U.S. Air Force)

New York Times: SEAL Team 6 and a Man Left for Dead: A Grainy Picture of Valor

An airman with the unit is being considered for the Medal of Honor after new video analysis suggested that he fought alone bravely in a 2002 battle on an Afghan peak.

Britt Slabinski could hear the bullets ricochet off the rocks in the darkness. It was the first firefight for his six-man reconnaissance unit from SEAL Team 6, and it was outnumbered, outgunned and taking casualties on an Afghan mountaintop.

A half-dozen feet or so to his right, John Chapman, an Air Force technical sergeant acting as the unit’s radioman, lay wounded in the snow. Mr. Slabinski, a senior chief petty officer, could see through his night-vision goggles an aiming laser from Sergeant Chapman’s rifle rising and falling with his breathing, a sign he was alive.

Then another of the Americans was struck in a furious exchange of grenades and machine-gun fire, and the chief realized that his team had to get off the peak immediately.

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Update #1: New review of surveillance video of a 2002 Afghanistan firefight generates controversy (FOX News)
Update 2: Air Force Seeks Medal Of Honor For CT Native Who Died In Afghanistan, NYTimes Reports (Hartford Courant)

WNU editor: If approved, this would be the first Medal of Honor awarded based solely on technical evidence and not eyewitness reports.