President Donald Trump on Wednesday posthumously awarded Air Force Technical Sergeant John Chapman the medal of honor. It’s the nation’s highest and most prestigious military award.
Chapman, a 1983 graduate of Windsor Locks High School, was killed in the eastern mountains of Afghanistan while on a March 2002 operation with the U.S Navy’s SEAL Team Six.
Chapman is credited with voluntarily charging into enemy gunfire during a mission to rescue a fellow soldier. He was severely wounded, but continued to fight, which allowed his teammates to escape before he died.
“Even though he was mortally wounded, John regained consciousness and he continued to fight on. And he really fought. We have proof of that fight,” Trump said. “He really fought.”
President Trump thanked members of Chapman’s family who were on hand to receive the award.
Chapman was the first Connecticut native to die in the Afghanistan war.
Since 2001, there have been more than 2,400 deaths of U.S. military and civilian personnel as a result of the ongoing war in Afghanistan.
It’s the second-longest war in American history.
