Why I Will Never Trust Navy SEALs Again | Part One: They made it personal

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Editor’s note: The following is a first-person guest essay by Lori Longfritz, sister of Air Force Combat Controller Master Sgt. John Chapman. It reflects her family’s experience and her own research and reporting over more than two decades, including information from sources she has not identified by name.

Late on the night of March 4, 2002, my mom received the visit no one wants: two men in service dress there to tell her that her son had been killed in action. It destroyed her, and then it destroyed each one of us, and we fell like dominoes. I was first because Mom and I lived in the same town; her husband called me. I had to call my sister and listen to her anguish as she called out for my brother-in-law. My brother was next and, after hearing no response, my sister-in-law came on to find out why he had collapsed onto the floor. As we were all in different states, we waited in agony for our father to be told so we could face our shock “together.”

My brother was Air Force Combat Controller Master Sgt. John “Chappy” Chapman. He was assigned to the 24^th Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, North Carolina when terrorists attacked us on 9/11. The 24th STS, also known as the “2-4,” is one of the premier Tier 1 units of the US military, alongside Navy SEAL Team Six or the Army’s Delta Force. He deployed to Afghanistan in January 2002. “I will do everything in my power to protect my team,” he told my sister before he left. John died doing just that on March 4, saving the lives of his teammates in a fierce firefight on what came to be known as Roberts Ridge. For his actions, John would become the first airman awarded the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War. But it would come only after years of heartache, deception, and a dismaying realization: I will never trust the Navy SEALs again.

When we gathered for a memorial service several days later at Pope Airfield, Mom had some pointed questions for John’s commander. Did he die right away? Did he suffer?

The initial report went something like this:

John was attached to a SEAL Team Six unit as part of Operation ANACONDA, a major effort to clean out remaining al-Qaeda fighters and their Taliban allies in the Shah-i-Khot Valley. The team planned to set up an observation post on Takur Ghar mountain. The 10,000-foot summit would be a great place from which John could call in airstrikes over the sprawling valley below. After a delay, the team tried to land on the summit in the pre-dawn darkness. As they approached the landing zone, the behemoth Chinook helicopter took machine gun and RPG fire, causing the pilots to veer off and make a controlled crash landing several kilometers away at the base of another mountain. What the pilots did not realize was that one of the SEALs, Neil Roberts, had fallen out of the open rear ramp when they left.

At the crash site, John called for air support against being overrun and the SEAL team leader, Britt Slabinski, requested another helicopter to pick them up. Slabinski wanted to go right back up the mountain, but the new pilot refused. Instead, the team headed back to Gardez where they acquired another helo and crew to take them back to Takur Ghar a few hours later. When that helicopter approached the top, it too came under fire, except the pilot was able to land, offload the men, and fly away. Normally, John, as the Combat Controller, would be one of the last men off, but this was an ad hoc rescue, so he ended up being second, behind Slabinski. Slabinski exited the helicopter and fell in the thigh-deep snow, John stepped over him, and immediately advanced on the nearest enemy bunker. He pushed uphill through deep snow and direct gunfire, engaged and killed the two enemy fighters in the bunker. Slabinski caught up with him, then John was shot and killed.

That is the story we were told in those first days and weeks. In a nutshell, they landed, John killed two bad guys, and he was killed. Period. End of story. He’d be nothing but a footnote in military history, if he made the history books at all.

There was a huge problem, though. That “end of the story” was just the beginning. Most of what they told us were lies cooked up by the Navy SEALs whose lives John saved. Don’t miss that point: He saved their lives. My brother saved SEAL Team Six. And then they tried to erase him.

Not only did their lies begin the moment his “teammates” reached the base of the mountain, but they were encouraged and expanded upon by their in-country operations officer, Timothy Szymanski—a name that will come up again and again in this story—and another SEAL leader, Jeromy Williams.

I was once one of the blissfully ignorant Americans who thought our Navy SEALs were the best, that they were men to be admired and trusted. I actually cheered when Dan Crenshaw was elected to Congress in 2018. Why? Solely because he had been a SEAL. I trusted without hesitation, even though I should have known better. I naturally assumed, “He was a SEAL. He must be a strong leader.” But he wasn’t, and he’s not the only one, in Congress and out, who falls terribly short of what American citizens should expect of them. I do believe there are SEALs who are in it for the right reasons and who retain their integrity or at least go down trying to keep it. I also believe there are some who have been attempting to clean up the rot within their teams, but those good guys are being trampled by the bad ones, and it’s getting worse.

It would take years for all that to sink in, but even back in 2002, I knew something was off. Mom immediately felt there was more to the story of what happened on that mountaintop, and I shared her doubts. We were told that John did not suffer, that he died almost instantly. More lies. Somehow, we knew the truth deep down but still chose to believe the story. After all, our military would never lie to a grieving family, would they? What we endured, what we continue to suffer, speaks volumes about the military’s propensity to lie, collateral damage be damned, including the pain inflicted on grieving families. In our story, the Air Force definitely played a role in what we were told, but it was the Navy and the SEALs who took charge of the narrative, and everyone else fell into line like obedient little children.

Whispers started pretty quickly—at the memorial service and then later at the funeral—but no one spoke directly to us about it. Our family was left struggling to trust what we were told while sensing something didn’t feel right. I wish we had pushed harder back then, but I am not confident it would have helped. The Navy and those SEALs thought they had covered their asses and, in the beginning, they had.

More information began coming out, bit by bit; things that did NOT make sense at all (much of this information came out over a few years, some over decades, and they are not necessarily listed in order of when we found out about them):

• The mission to get a team up to Takur Ghar mountain was a clusterfuck from the start. Though Britt Slabinski tried to delay it 24 hours, ultimately, he caved and took the unnecessary and poorly planned mission that was destined to fail.

• The team’s callsign was MAKO 30. Since John was attached to that team, his callsign was MAKO 30 Charlie (Charlie indicates Combat Controller or CCT).

• John was following CCT protocol when he took the lead after Slabinski fell while exiting the Chinook. The main objective of CCTs is to gain cover and higher ground from which to use their radios. MAKO 30 had to know their small arms were not going to save them, but calling air support assets onto target just might, and John had to get to higher ground to do that. As team leader, Slabinski should have understood the role of his CCT and expected him to do exactly what he did. John was probably also aware of their temporary advantage: He had night vision goggles, a suppressed weapon, and cover of darkness that was quickly giving way to light. He had to act when he did … and how he did.

• Besides following CCT protocol, John was also doing what they are all trained to do when rescuing a fallen brother. It’s called “hostage rescue.” John moved quickly to secure Roberts, dead or alive. He attacked the attackers (another basic tactic) to get to Roberts and to get to higher ground. In doing so, he also saved the rest of his SEAL Team Six “teammates.”

• John’s body was not found where Slabinski said he had last seen him.

• Slabinski’s story about how and when he checked John for signs of life changed multiple times. They were not similar versions of the same story; they were drastically differing accounts that changed each time new information was released. Ultimately, he never checked John in any way or at any time (video proves this).

• After Slabinski and the others abandoned John, CCT Jay Hill, who was on an adjacent mountaintop and had no idea John was on Takur Ghar, heard his call several times: “Any station, any station, this is MAKO 30 Charlie.” Hill knew John’s voice, his cadence, and his callsign. He answered each time but never received a return response from John.

• The SEALs used a blue-to-blue (Navy-to-Navy) line of communication, cutting out the Delta Force commander who had been doing reconnaissance for weeks and oversaw the AFO (Advanced Force Operations) in Gardez. This was the most egregious explanation for why no one knew who was in the firefight they were witnessing on the mountain; no one could hear their communications.

• Neil Roberts’ body had been stripped and partially mutilated because the enemy had a few hours to do it. John’s body was fully clothed and had not suffered any mutilation, which meant the enemy did not have time with him.

• John had expended all but a small amount of ammo when his body was found.

• He had hand-to-hand combat wounds like bruises and cuts that could not be explained as having happened post-mortem.

• Slabinski admitted that after the team retreated over the side of the mountain, they could hear an American weapon being fired. The SEALs floated two explanations, neither of which makes any sense. One, that the enemy was firing John’s weapon in celebration … uh, for over an hour? Two, that the enemy was shooting at each other. Except these were seasoned fighters who had been together for weeks, months, or even years. Plus, by then it was dawn, and they could see each other. The only viable and logical explanation: It was John.

• There was a short period of time in which the SEALs claimed the hero on the mountain was Neil Roberts, but that was proven false. If Roberts had been the one shooting, the Navy would absolutely have put him in for the Navy Cross at the very least. They did not. He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry in action.

• In calling for a Quick Reaction Force to rescue them, Slabinski said, “Possible KIA.” Don’t miss that: Possible KIA. In the heat of the moment, in the middle of retreating under gunfire, Slabinski did not know if John was dead or alive. That phrase also means it’s the only time Slabinski told the truth … when there was no time to come up with the lie. (This is part of a recording of the battle comms. I have heard it, though not until March 2025.)

• As the QRF was landing, someone was laying down suppressive fire for them. It could not have been anyone but John doing that, and it would explain why his ammo was all but used up and why his body was in a different location from where Slabinski left him. This is also confirmed by video.

• An AC-130H SPECTRE gunship was already on station, watching from overhead, when MAKO 30 landed on the mountain the second time. After the SEALs retreated and left John alone, the aircraft commander, DJ Turner, described what he saw: “It looks like a firefight in a phone booth down there.”

• The kicker: John’s autopsy results indicate wounds sustained only after a long, hard battle, wounds not suffered post-mortem. If he had been killed when Slabinski claimed, bruising and other physical signs would not be present. They were.

As more and more information came out, we still wanted to believe John’s “teammates.” We couldn’t accept that they would lie about the man who saved them. Ridiculously, we actually thought they cared about us. Between March 2002 and January 2003, I was in contact with First Sergeant of the 2-4 Kenny Longfritz (whom I married in 2003) because we knew John was being considered for the Air Force Cross, which, like the Navy Cross, is an award for valor second only to the Medal of Honor. When I wondered why it was taking so long, he mentioned high-ranking discussions about whether John’s actions qualified for the Medal of Honor. It was yet another indicator that there was so much more to the story.

Ultimately, John was awarded the Air Force Cross on January 13, 2003. Slabinski was there, and we greeted him with respect and open arms, still clinging to the hope that what was slowly becoming obvious wasn’t true. Our dad took him behind closed doors, and he seemed satisfied when they emerged. Dad died in 2004, and we never found out what was discussed. Their exchange will remain a mystery because I would not believe a word that Slabinski utters now. Regardless, in 2003, we continued to cling to the belief that most of what we were told was true.

What finally opened my eyes was something that occurred on April 8, 2005. That’s the day the MV Merlin, a preposition munitions ship, was being recommissioned as the MV TSgt John A. Chapman. I believe Szymanski attended, though I’m not positive. Slabinski was there again. This time, he looked very uncomfortable to be around our family, yet we greeted him with hugs, still hanging on by a thread of hope that he was good. Looking back, I feel so stupid for ever giving him the benefit of the doubt. There were so many signs. But that day, he was not the one who confirmed the lies and deceit. It came from “one of our own.”

General John Jumper, the chief of staff of the Air Force, was there, and Kenny used the opportunity to approach him with the question of upgrading John’s Air Force Cross. Jumper knew Kenny had been the 2-4 first sergeant and should have known he is my husband, but he still answered with, “You know, the Chapman family has been easy to work with, so let’s not rock the boat.” Interpretation: “The Chapman family has believed the lies, so let’s just shut up and color.” There is no doubt in my mind that he understood John’s actions were Medal of Honor level. There is also no doubt in my mind that he was falling into line with the SEALs’ narrative. His one statement revealed it all. It was like being punched in the gut when I realized we had all been deceived and discarded, not just by the Navy and the SEALs, but also by the Air Force. I could not understand why everyone kowtowed to the SEALs, but there it was. Every lie, everything that did not make sense, every piece of information that slowly leaked out, started painting a picture of what really happened.

Here’s the thing: All any Gold Star family wants is the truth—good, bad, or ugly. It is what every family deserves. The realization that “the SEAL brand” was more important than a grieving family was mind-blowing. I didn’t think it could get worse, but what happened over the next two decades brought it to a whole new and disgusting level.

We moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming, in 2009, and life had quieted down. We still heard bits of information off and on, but not enough to make us move forward with our doubts ... until we met an active-duty Air Force Pararescueman at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Thunderbird show in July 2009. When he found out who we were, he became visibly angry that John had not been awarded the Medal of Honor. He told us that everyone in the Air Force Special Tactics community knew there was more to John’s actions than the SEALs claimed and that “they (the SEALs) had fucked up big time.”

For a good many years, I felt abandoned by John’s unit and CCT teammates. Why had no one pushed back? Very recently, however, a Combat Controller from the 2-4 told me that they had, in fact, been fighting all along to uncover the truth about John’s actions. I cannot express strongly enough how deeply I appreciate their behind-the-scenes efforts, which exposed the lies and proved John’s actions down to the minute he died.

Kenny and I began talking about the whole “Air Force Cross vs Medal of Honor” question. I researched Medal of Honor citations and found many for men who did much more than John. I also found many who did way less. We looked at the criteria and concluded that his actions did seem to qualify for the military’s highest honor. Kenny contacted our Wyoming congresswoman, Cynthia Lummis. Her office tried to help, but the inquiry was immediately denied. I sent a letter to Congressman Duncan Hunter of California because I had read an article about him questioning if someone else’s award should be upgraded. No response. I filed countless Freedom of Information Act requests for all information regarding John and the SEALs. Crickets.

Then we heard rumblings of a CIA drone video of the battle. I wanted to see it and was told, “No you don’t.” I really did. At that point, nothing could have caused me more pain than what I was already experiencing.

Something else had shifted in me by then, too. I once said I could not blame Britt Slabinski for what happened on the mountain. I wasn’t there. I’ve never been in combat. But after discovering he had lied about what did and did not happen, that all changed. I could blame him for his “leadership” shortcomings and cowardly decisions, before and after the mission. It also became very clear that the cover-up was not coming from Slabinski alone. It was so much deeper. It was the Navy. It was the SEALs. It was Tim Szymanski, who had continued to rise through the ranks. It was Jeromy Williams, who rose with him. It was John’s SEAL Team Six “teammates.” And I’m sad to say, it was the Air Force in their effort to “keep the peace between the services.” And it was all bullshit.

After Takur Ghar, from 2002 to 2008, Slabinski had been accused of war crimes, including murder, and was declared “persona non grata” (PNG) at SEAL Team Six in Dam Neck, Virginia. In an interview with an author that he knew was being recorded for a book, he described an incident—a war crime—in which he participated. I heard the recording, and he called what he did “therapy.” This fact will play a huge role in the next revelation.

Excerpt from Politico:

The Intercept also obtained an audio recording in which Slabinski, speaking to the author of a book about the 2002 Takur Ghar battle, described unnecessarily firing 20 bullets into the body of an insurgent his team killed during a raid that followed the battle.

“I mean, he was dead, but people have got nerves,” Slabinski can be heard saying on the recording, a portion of which the Intercept posted online. “I shot him about 20 times in the legs, and every time you’d kick him, er, shoot him, he would kick up, you could see his body twitching and all that.”

“It was really good therapy for everybody who was there,” Slabinski added on the recording.

Why didn’t he receive an immediate court-martial?! Why was he only disinvited to the SEAL compound in Dam Neck? I think the answer is quite clear.

After trying a few times to get John’s Air Force Cross looked at for a possible upgrade, we gave up, disheartened by the blockade we couldn’t find a way over, around, or through. Thankfully, in May 2015, then-Secretary of the Air Force Deborah James read an article in the Air Force Times entitled, “He Saved 80 Lives: Why Not the Medal of Honor?” The article was about two Combat Controllers: Senior Airman Dustin Temple, who saved 80 Americans and Afghans, and Staff Sgt. Robert Gutierrez, who saved his team leader and continued calling in airstrikes while suffering a collapsed lung (more than once) after being shot in the chest. (BOTH of these men deserve the Medal of Honor and it’s shameful that their medals have not been upgraded.) Using these heroes’ stories, the author asked, “What does it take for an airman to receive the Medal of Honor?”

Secretary James wanted an answer, so she tasked her team with creating a list of medal recipients who may have qualified for the Medal of Honor. John’s name was on it, and eventually he was selected for a closer look. As soon as the SEALs heard about the inquiry into a possible upgrade, they began a concerted and deliberate campaign to disqualify John. Leading the charge were Tim Szymanski—now an admiral who took over as head of Naval Special Warfare in 2016—Jeromy Williams—who now commanded SEAL Team Six—and Britt Slabinski, with the rest of MAKO 30 joining the effort. Let me remind you: John saved Slabinski’s life and the lives of the other four SEAL Team Six “teammates.” Don’t forget that fact when I expose the lengths they went to squash John’s medal upgrade.

It started out small, but let me back up. When John was submitted for the Air Force Cross in 2002, the medal was supported by Slabinski and part of the team. Since they were deployed, their statements had been sent electronically and were unsigned. Obviously, those statements were accepted since John received the Air Force Cross. In John’s citation, Slabinski states that he “credits Sergeant Chapman unequivocally with saving the lives of the entire rescue team (MAKO 30).” John was their hero for 13 years until the Medal of Honor upgrade was put into motion in 2015.

In their effort to discredit him, Slabinski, Szymanski, and the other SEALs began saying things like, “John disobeyed orders,” and “He should not have gone ahead.” They criticized his every decision and action, even though those decisions were the right ones to make and he saved their lives in the process. When those tactics did not work, they got more insidious.

The Air Force put a team together to investigate and prove that John’s actions were worthy of the Medal of Honor. One member of the multi-faceted team was an intelligence analyst forward deployed to Uzbekistan at the time of the battle. Two other members had been on the AC-130H SPECTRE gunship that had been circling the airspace above the battle in 2002. They were ear and eyewitnesses, a requirement for a Medal of Honor. The intel analyst recalled that the audio and video they recorded more than a decade prior had been filed away, and he went in search of it.

The SEALs wanted to make sure the recording never saw the light of day. A day or so after the battle, Szymanski sent two plainclothes individuals (I can only assume they were Navy SEALs) up to Uzbekistan, where the gunship was based, and demanded all the footage. They claimed that it showed SEAL tactics which needed to be safeguarded. The intel analysts handed it over, but luckily, they had saved a backup prior to the arrival of Szymanski’s goons when they transmitted it via a secure server to the Pentagon immediately following the mission. Szymanski did not know about the backup, and the original “disappeared” while the copy was safely in the States, archived and forgotten. More amazingly, this backup copy, saved on a secure server, had been segmented into more than 2,000 chunks of video that required painstaking reconstruction by a very dedicated imagery analyst during the Medal of Honor research project.

Once the AC-130H video was found and reassembled, the team used it to fill gaps in the CIA drone video. The truth that emerged was quite different from the story that Slabinski and John’s team had been telling since 2002. It proved that John was the only one to take out the first position, though Slabinski had claimed he and John did it. It showed that Slabinski followed John’s path through the deep snow instead of fanning to either side to support him in what I am told is a basic battlefield tactic, one that Slabinski should have automatically used and one that John would have trusted him to do. It disproved Slabinski’s claim to have been shooting at the bunker with John. If he had been, he’d have hit John because Slabinski was directly behind him. It proved that John did not die when Slabinski said he did. It proved that Slabinski never checked John’s condition, not once. It proved the SEALs were lying and had been since 2002.

In the spirit of being forthcoming and respecting a sister service, John’s Medal of Honor team set up briefings with the SEALs before going public with the information. They did not have to do this. Air Force Chief Master Sgt. Rob Harrison, from the crew of the AC-130H, was present for at least one of the meetings. He said the SEALs refused to accept their findings. Upon seeing the footage that clearly showed John re-entering the bunker after his teammates had left him behind, they responded with, “That’s not how we remember it,” and “We were there.” Rob told me it was all he could do to hold back a grin when he responded, “with all due respect, you [Slabinski] and the team had broken contact over the side of the mountain at this point. WE were there and here’s John crawling into the bunker from our recorded overhead footage.” The presentation also included the testimony of CCT Jay Hill who heard John’s radio transmissions and verified “the callsign and voice was Chappy.” Slabinski immediately started saying to his teammates, “Heyyy, didn’t you use ‘MAKO 30 Charlie’ at one point?” “Ohh, yeahhh. I did. And didn’t you, teammate?” None of them had ever used the Charlie callsign, yet there they were, claiming it when they couldn’t explain away Hill’s statement.

To top it off, when they were asked to sign the original witness statements that had been submitted electronically in 2002 for John’s Air Force Cross, they all refused. This is how his “teammates” repaid John’s heroism, his never-quit mentality, his life-saving actions and, ultimately, his sacrifice.

There was more bad SEAL behavior that happened during this and other briefings. Journalist Matt Cole wrote in his book Code Over Country that Tim Szymanski, as commander of Naval Special Warfare, confronted the head of Air Force Special Operations Command, Lt. Gen. Marshall “Brad” Webb, and told him to stop pushing for Chapman’s upgrade. “Tim was shaking so much I thought he was going to punch me,” Webb told his aides shortly after.

Once the SEALs saw the Air Force’s report, they prepared their own counter-narrative in the form of a video they dubbed “Red Beard.” In it, they claim the one shooting up the place was a red-bearded enemy fighter who was wearing Neil Roberts’ camo pants. When they presented their fabricated video to then-Secretary of Defense James Mattis, he saw right through the bullshit, dismissed it, and refused to hear any further discussion.

It gets even worse. When all else failed, when they could not create a reason for John to be disqualified for a medal upgrade, the SEALs said they would agree to everything presented in the Air Force’s case for John up until the point when the team broke contact with the enemy. They flat-out refused to acknowledge John’s actions for the remaining hour plus, when he was on the mountaintop … alone with the enemy. Why? Because they would then have to admit that Air Force Combat Controller Tech. Sgt. (at the time) John Chapman saved the lives of the “big, bad” SEAL Team Six operators. They would be exposed for lying about not leaving a man behind. They couldn’t have that.

Here’s the thing: All any Gold Star family wants is the truth … good, bad, or ugly. It is what every family deserves. The realization that “the SEAL brand” was more important than a grieving family was mind-blowing.

On the way out of the room of the September 2016 presentation to SEAL Team Six leadership and the surviving members of MAKO 30, Jeromy Williams, as the Commander of SEAL Team Six, shot a look over at Slabinski and said, “I guess we should look at putting you in for the Medal of Honor.” And that was that. They had their counter to John’s Medal of Honor: Manufacture a scenario in which Slabinski’s actions earned it, too, and he didn’t have the integrity to say, “No.”

There were a few hurdles, though. First, you’ll recall that Slabinski had been PNG’d from SEAL Team Six … so they un-PNG’d him because anyone not welcome in his own group is disqualified for the Medal of Honor. Second, there were those pesky war crime accusations (one to which he admitted on audio). Admiral (by then) Tim Szymanski helped make those charges disappear, the most egregious of which was cleared by way of a “botched” investigation. (Make note of this for a story in Part Two of this essay. It’s a doozie.) Third, Slabinski had quietly been awarded the Navy Cross around the time John received his Air Force Cross. I could never find an official ceremony for his Navy Cross, which was very strange. Regardless, when a medal already exists, an upgrade to the Medal of Honor must include new information. The Air Force had that with the recovered AC-130H video and other witness statements that had not been used for John’s Air Force Cross. There was no new evidence for Slabinski’s upgrade, so … that requirement was waived. Interesting, isn’t it?

Here are my questions regarding submitting Slabinski for the Medal of Honor: If the Navy believed he earned it and had evidence to support it, why didn’t they submit him in 2002? If the SEAL command thought for one moment that his actions were Medal of Honor level, there is no way they’d have passed on it. They are notorious for watering down the significance of medals by handing them out like “everyone needs a trophy.” Why, then, would Britt Slabinski’s Navy Cross be so hush-hush that I couldn’t find anything about it, and two, why didn’t the Navy submit him for the Medal of Honor immediately? They didn’t need video. Up to that point, no Medal of Honor recipient had video proof of his actions. All they needed were eyewitness statements. The SEALs lied about everything else. Why didn’t they lie back then to get “their guy” the highest military honor? Because they knew he didn’t earn the Medal of Honor.

Even with all their lies and deceit, the SEALs adopted the Air Force’s findings in the end. According to a senior defense official who was deeply involved in the process, when the SEALs saw those findings, they copied-and-pasted them into Slabinski’s Medal of Honor package. They basically acknowledged them as true. To preserve the SEAL “brand”—it’s always about the brand—a deal was struck to split John’s package in two. Material Finding #1 described how he killed the two enemy fighters and advanced on the second bunker. Material Finding #2 covered how the SEALs retreated and left him alone on the mountain, and how John sacrificed his life by laying down suppressive fire for the arriving Quick Reaction Force. The SEALs demanded that Material Finding #2 be classified so no one would know. I believe it remains classified.

When it came time to schedule the Medal of Honor ceremonies, the Navy insisted Slabinski’s be awarded first. Why? My guess is for the optics: If Slabinski received it first, maybe the public would believe it was because his actions were more heroic than his Air Force enlisted counterpart’s. Disgustingly, Slabinski’s Medal of Honor citation credits him with John’s actions. The CIA drone/AC-130H video disproves the claim, but … who cares about facts, right?

On August 22, 2018, John was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Slabinski was in attendance and, by that time, I couldn’t stand the sight of him. He did not deserve to be there in his white uniform, with an unearned medal hanging around his neck. Some greeted him cordially. I avoided him because I’m not sure I could have controlled my reaction to being face-to-face with him. I also wanted to ask him, not nicely, if he had any integrity or morals … but it was not the time or place. I have since discovered the answer: He has neither. I was told that Admiral Tim Szymanski demanded to be invited too but, thankfully, his request was denied.

As things settled down again, I had to find a way to accept the repulsive things the SEALs tried to do to John’s reputation and the things they did do to us and others. As it always does, life returned to normal—until late 2023. Somehow, I became aware of a Medal of Honor museum being built in Arlington, Texas. I cannot even remember how I became connected with one of the people working on the project (I think someone introduced us via email), but he sent out email updates of the building construction. I’d occasionally comment and thank him for sharing. He told me that I could tour the site, and I took him up on the offer. Before the visit, Col. Michael Caldwell, the Medal of Honor Museum Foundation’s chief of staff, held a Zoom call with my family to answer questions and to give an idea of what to expect. What he told us was not what they actually did. He told us they would “honor John in a big way.”

In February 2024, a friend who served with John and still worked at the 2-4 met me in Arlington so we could take the tour and talk with the curator to determine what artifacts the family or the unit might have to donate/lend for John’s exhibit. The museum was only partially built, but enough that they could point out locations of things. We were shown where John’s exhibit would be. We were told it would honor him and his actions. After the tour, we retired to a conference room where curator Greg Waters and two others from the museum showed us a photo of John that would appear on the Medal of Honor timeline. The caption read in part, Air Force Master Sgt. John Chapman. I asked why Combat Controller was omitted, and they laughed, “Oh yeah, that might be a good idea.” Yeah. I told Waters that I would talk with my family, especially Mom, to see what we could lend or copy for the museum. He assured me he would also contact her himself. My friend from the unit also committed to looking at what they had that could be donated or loaned.

Something I had heard but didn’t verify until our trip to the museum was that Slabinski was on the board of directors. That made me uncomfortable, and I brought it up at the meeting. I asked if they were aware of the controversy regarding John and Slabinski, and they said they were. I then inquired if John’s exhibit would be near Slabinski’s and was assured it would not be. Finally, I asked if Slabinski would have anything to do with how John’s exhibit was presented. Again, they told us he would not … and we believed them. When we left the museum, both of us were so excited. John’s Medal of Honor is the first (and only) awarded to an airman since the Vietnam War, and it’s the first to be supported by video evidence. It would be a very special exhibit, as promised by the museum team. (I have the email “receipts.”)

Signs that something was not quite right started emerging. I never heard from curator Greg Waters unless I initiated contact, and his answers were usually one-liners. He did not contact my mother. John’s unit kept calling him, but he never responded. Wanting to believe he was just very busy, I gave him a pass. Then, in November 2024, someone contacted me with disturbing information from within the museum: We had been misled. They were not going to honor John as we were told. In fact, they were diminishing him and elevating Slabinski. I could not believe it. Surely, they knew the truth. Ahhh, but Slabinski is on the board. And his wife, a Navy SEAL widow from an earlier marriage, works at the museum. And the then-president and CEO, Chris Cassidy, was a Navy SEAL. And others on the Board were Navy SEALs. Another source from inside the $270 million museum said they sarcastically called it “Slabinski’s Museum” because he strutted around, telling everyone what he wanted.

Because I could not independently corroborate the information, I said nothing until late December 2024 when my mom emailed the museum. She demanded to know why she had not been contacted yet after they promised in February that they would. Once I found out Mom was distressed, I emailed Senior Vice President Alexandra Rhue, one of our three museum “tour guides,” and asked if what I had been told was true. She said, “Yes.” So Slabinski would be elevated with a dedicated exhibit, and John would be diminished with the photo on the timeline wall. I was livid. They lied. The tour was a lie. Wanting artifacts was a lie. Contacting my mom was a lie. Contacting the unit was a lie. Honoring John was a lie. Everything was a lie.

Greg Waters contacted my mom only after she demanded answers and he offered meaningless excuses. To say I was embarrassed is an understatement. I let the SEALs play me again. I let Waters, Rhue, and others within the museum enchant me with how they would honor John. I believed them. Why wouldn’t I? They played the long game. It was impressive in its vileness. It had taken years to get the funding, location, architect, approval, etc. The entire plan was, yes, to honor Medal of Honor recipients, but that was the bait. The switch was to also push the false narrative of Navy SEAL Britt Slabinski.

I will not be silent ever again after this latest betrayal. On Facebook, I blasted out what happened, initially because I had told people to go to the grand opening to see John’s amazing exhibit. I couldn’t let them spend time and money to not see one. The minute people saw my post, they wanted it made public so they could share … and it went viral. Clearly, the museum was not expecting the blowback and, at first, did nothing. Then their PR team put out a vanilla statement about rotating exhibits and idiotic stuff like that. When confronted about not contacting the family or unit, complicit curator Greg Waters claimed, “We wanted to take the family’s feelings into consideration,” and “The unit was very difficult to get hold of.” Both of those statements are pure fiction, just like Britt Slabinski’s Medal of Honor citation.

As the fallout from the museum gained traction, I was working at a little women’s boutique in downtown Cheyenne. I was appearing on military podcasts and was even brought to Connecticut for an interview with Tony Dokoupil, then of CBS Mornings. The attention also brought what I believe were at least three incidents of Navy SEAL surveillance at the boutique. Believe me, I know how that sounds … small-town Cheyenne and “nobody” Lori Longfritz being spied on by SEALs … but these were “something doesn’t make sense” events. I had many male customers up to that point who were shopping for wives or mothers, and these men were not there to shop for women. Video from within the shop captured two of them, and I took photos outside of the third one. One guy even said he was from San Diego (where the SEALs are headquartered). Yes, I know thousands of people live there, and it doesn’t mean he was a SEAL, but he didn’t “fit” in the boutique, and he gave off an uncomfortable vibe. The other guy who came inside was even more out of place, but I won’t share what he did to make me notice him. The man outside was not expecting me to appear on the sidewalk, and his reaction was so stupid it was almost comical. I know there will be naysayers, but like the turd in a punchbowl, none of them belonged there, and I trust my instincts.`

As the museum’s grand opening was getting closer and I kept doing podcasts, I was contacted by a Florida congresswoman who told me that Montana Representative Ryan Zinke, a former commander at SEAL Team Six (surprise), wanted to investigate the museum issue and talk with me. He claimed he wanted to smooth things over between our family and the museum, to see what he could do. He toured it and then called me. He tried to create trust with small talk. I didn’t bite. When I asked what he thought of the exhibits, he turned politician: very noncommittal. He could not understand why I said they were disgusting, so I asked him if he thought Slabinski deserved the Medal of Honor. Again, non-answers: “Wellll, it’s not for me to decide who receives the medal.” That’s not what I asked. Already knowing the answer, I asked if he knew someone named Szymanski. He admitted he did and deflected again when I asked if he knew all the dirty things he has done. Once he took that ridiculous politician stance, I said, “Oh, I see how this is going to go.” He feigned ignorance and just kept up the silly game. I grew irritated, so he put it on me, “I can tell you’re getting upset, so I’ll end the call.” His reaction, in my experience, was the typical SEAL response … cut and run … just like Slabinski. Is that what he does with angry constituents?

A week or so after the call, Kenny and I met a friend for dinner. He is a retired CCT, and when I said how much of a pompous ass Zinke was, he told me he had worked with him in the past, and that Zinke had not been the best SEAL. He had been caught defrauding the military at a level far greater than what became publicly known. Instead of getting fired, they allowed him to retire. The next thing anyone knew, Zinke was elected to Congress after driving around Montana with a SEAL Trident emblazoned on his campaign bus. I wonder where much of his campaign money came from. He is one of seven Navy SEALs in Congress, all Republican. I don’t trust any of them.

Call it morbid curiosity, but I had to attend the soft opening of the museum in March 2025. Two friends, Matt Cubbler (you’ll meet him in Part Two) and Rob Harrison, joined me. What we saw was beyond sickening. As you step off the elevator, you are greeted by an enormous exhibit for Slabinski. It has photos and artifacts that he donated. It pays homage to Navy SEAL Neil Roberts with a photo and a short paragraph. They mention the team by first names only, and they never honor John as the man who saved the lives of MAKO 30. He has been scrubbed from Slabinski’s fiction. Just past Slabinski’s “I’m-compensating-for-something” white altar is a glass exhibit housing his dress uniform and what he was allegedly wearing during the battle. To those who do not know the truth, based solely on the enormity and placement of the exhibit, they would believe he must be such a great and honorable warrior; that the museum would never showcase someone who didn’t earn the nation’s highest honor. The joke is on them.

And what of John’s “exhibit,” you ask? Step off that same elevator and turn to the right. There, on the Medal of Honor timeline wall, mere feet from the foot of Slabinski’s monument to himself, is a small photo of John with a brief caption that does not mention Slabinski. Next to that are someone else’s artifacts, and next to that is the video that helped prove his actions. It has been edited from over eight minutes to just over two minutes. It is also muted, unlike the audio for Slabinski’s and other exhibits. What do they not want people to know? They don’t want visitors to make the connection between Air Force Combat Controller John Chapman and Navy SEAL Britt Slabinski, but their stories were forever tied together on March 4, 2002, on a desolate mountaintop in Afghanistan, and no amount of lying will change that. Cowards.

Everyone in the museum knows the truth. Some are OK with the lies, others are not. All but one signed NDAs upon leaving. Why would a museum need to force people to sign NDAs? The one who didn’t sign will not talk to anyone, and I find that very curious. Big donors like Jerry Jones, the owner of the Dallas Cowboys, know the truth. His daughter, Charlotte, was the chairwoman of the board and was heavily involved from the beginning. I introduced myself to her, and she instantly recognized John’s name. I gave her my phone number when we shook hands, hoping she’d call. Nothing. People have emailed her. She knows the truth. The museum is right next to the Cowboys stadium. Qatar, a country that welcomes our enemies, has donated money. Why would that be, I wonder. The list goes on and on.

I saw Slabinski twice during my visit. The first time was at a social. I turned, and there he was, giving me a creepy little smile. I glared at him and moved on, fully aware that my movements were being monitored. (Yes, I know this sounds like some cheesy spy novel, but it’s what happened.) The second interaction was outside of the museum the following day. As he was passing our group (others had come to support me and to see the farce for themselves), I looked him in the eye and asked, “How do you sleep at night?” He lowered his eyes and kept walking. The coward who has been lying about his actions for 24 years was right there in front of me in Arlington, Texas … and he “ran” just like he did on Takur Ghar.

What galls me the most about this entire museum fraud is the fact that they were willing to have my family and John’s friends make the trip to Texas, excited to see his exhibit, only to find out then that he doesn’t have one. My mother was 83 at the time, on oxygen, and travel would be difficult, but she would do it for John. They knew all of this and were still perfectly happy to let it unfold that way. What does that say about them—every one of them—not just Britt Slabinski and the other SEALs, but everyone at the museum who knew the truth and kept quiet? NDA anyone?

I want to be clear: If I had not been told John would have an exhibit, if I had not been given a tour and shown where it would be, if I had not been told they were going to honor him “in a big way,” there may not have been this level of fallout. I don’t think John’s medal is more important than most of the other recipients, and I take nothing away from their actions. I do, however, believe the historical value of his medal does merit a standalone exhibit that properly honors this generation’s only airman since Vietnam, enlisted or officer, to be awarded the Medal of Honor. The museum, with Slabinski, his wife, and other SEALs running it, chose to honor a living person over the warrior who saved his life. Slabinski is showing he has zero integrity and is no hero. A true hero would have insisted on honoring the deceased man who allowed him to return home to his family. A true hero doesn’t run around a museum demanding to be honored himself. The SEALs and other museum employees surrounding him are fully supporting the lies. I guess my question is, “How do all of them sleep at night?”

During our time inside the museum, I met a man who had been on the board of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, the congressionally chartered body that only recipients of the nation’s highest award for valor can join. We had a phone call a week after meeting, during which he told me how Britt Slabinski became president of the Society: The museum wanted artifacts that the Society had, but their request was denied. So the SEALs “took over” the Society, installed Slabinski as president, and the museum got the artifacts. The man was disheartened and disgusted, and he left the board. This scenario plays out again with a different SEAL in Part Two.

The Medal of Honor Museum bullshit brought the spotlight back onto the SEALs and not in a good way. Stupidly for them, it reignited the controversy, which had all but died out. It also increased their desire to distance themselves from the truth of Takur Ghar. They are still pushing the idiotic “Red Beard” theory and have now, two decades after March 4, 2002, and one decade since the AC-130H video was recovered, enlisted the “help” of former Delta Force squadron commander Pete Blaber. He was head of Advanced Force Operations (AFO), which was responsible for the special reconnaissance teams in Operation ANACONDA. He was “ghosted” when Tim Szymanski and the team moved to blue-to-blue communications. He harshly criticized the SEALs over most everything that happened on the mission. He was outspoken against the command decisions that allowed SEAL leadership to force itself into his AFO-led mission and rush a tactically unsound insertion onto Takur Ghar. He was in a safehouse in Gardez when he was ordered to accept them into his mission and in the valley near Takur Ghar when the shit storm happened.

After years of criticizing specific decisions as catastrophic failures, after arguing that some leaders were protected while others bore the consequences, after expressing anger that senior officers advanced their careers despite what he views as grave mistakes, he now takes their side. He defends their actions, no longer mentions the offenders by name, and directs his ire at an Air Force deputy commanding general whose only “fault” was that he gave Blaber the order to transition control to the SEALs. Blaber knows full well that it was SEAL leadership influencing and manipulating the Air Force pilot serving as the deputy commanding general, but he now chooses to attack the man who did nothing but convey an order that wasn’t his.

Blaber further contradicts himself by saying he is the only person who has seen all the video and is promising “more video.” Why now? Where was this “more video” years ago and why didn’t the Navy use it then? Remember, they took all the original video immediately after the battle. Why does the Navy need Blaber to release it? They need him because he’s not Navy and because he criticized them in the past. Why is he even joining this fight after years of calling for the SEALs and their commanding officers to be held accountable for disastrous decisions? I know why. Can you guess?

Despite his combat bona fides, Blaber cannot get around video evidence and forensic proof, but he is out there trying to sell the lies anyway because people won’t research. Some actually believe the “Red Beard” drivel. Blaber’s reception after appearing on one podcast was either not well received or it didn’t reach a big enough audience, so his new teammates put him on the Shawn Ryan Show. For whatever stupid reason, people trust Ryan (another SEAL … surprise!), so anyone who needs a platform to gain credibility or push a narrative goes on his show. It’s sad, really, how many people think he and many of his guests are so upstanding just because they were SEALs or Delta or some other military guy. What I’m learning is … Big Fucking Deal. Everyone fawned all over “Lone Survivor” Marcus Luttrell. Look what happened there … LIES that went all the way to the top of Naval Special Warfare. Lies that made everyone involved rich (except the man who saved Luttrell’s life); lies that the SEALs used for recruitment.

Though there is a very small handful of SEALs I believe in, I will never trust others just because they’re SEALs. My experience and what I’ve learned from insiders will not allow me to trust without verification, and even then, there would never be “all in” trust. Maybe America should rethink its obsession with idolizing them, too. As I said, they are not gods, not by a long shot. I also strongly recommend to young men who are considering that path … do your homework. Ask questions (not from the SEALs). Read Code Over Country by Matthew Cole. Please don’t go in all googly-eyed while leaving your intelligence and integrity at the door. Realize that your brain is still forming. It’s exactly what they want. If you still decide to try, may God bless you and may you remain vigilant. Don’t get put in compromising situations that can be used against you, though they have that shit down to a science. Don’t be dragged to the dark side of what is supposed to be one of the best career fields in the military. The SEALs are redeemable … if they get rid of the rot.

Well, there it is ... Part One: Britt Slabinski, the MAKO 30 “teammates”, Tim Szymanski, Jeromy Williams, Ryan Zinke, and many more Navy SEALs brought this to my family and to me. They made it personal over and over again. The SEALs targeted John because he did something they didn’t or couldn’t do and, in doing so, he embarrassed them. The mission was an ill-conceived clusterfuck right from the start, and it was an Air Force Combat Controller who saved their asses. SEAL Team Six needed to be saved by an enlisted airman. Oh, the horror. As the lies got bigger, they became more corrupt (you’ll see in Part Two), and every time we settled down, they did something to bring it all back. It was like ripping off a bandage just when you think you’ve healed, only to find the gaping wound is still there and they’re pouring salt in it. What the Navy SEALs did to our family, what they’ve done and continue to do to other families, cuts deeper than just lies; it is gut-wrenching, soul-sucking betrayal, and it needs to stop