Marine veteran and star actor Adam Driver has officially been cast as Air Force combat controller and Medal of Honor recipient John Chapman in an upcoming feature film.
Chapman, who was killed in action in Afghanistan during March 2002’s harrowing Battle at Takur Ghar, was first recognized with the Air Force Cross prior to the award’s 2018 upgrade to the Medal of Honor.
In 2021 it was announced that actor Jake Gyllenhaal would play Chapman in the prospective film “Combat Control.” Subsequent script issues and studio changes, however, left the project in flux for years.
Now, the film is slated to be helmed by director Ron Howard, who will move ahead with the project under the title, “Alone at Dawn,” according to Deadline.
The film is based on the best-selling book of the same name by Dan Schilling and Lori Chapman Longfritz, Chapman’s sister.
A fight to the end
The upgrade of Chapman’s Air Force Cross to the Medal of Honor followed an exhaustive investigation into the heroic firefight that claimed his life.
In the early morning hours of March 4, 2002, Chapman was on board a U.S. Army MH-47E helicopter with a team of Navy SEALs when the crew, which was attempting to insert atop the peak of the 10,000-foot Tukar Ghar, came under heavy fire from al-Qaida fighters below.
Hit with rocket propelled grenade and small arms fire, the badly damaged helicopter attempted to lift off. As it lurched, one of the SEALs, Petty Officer First Class Neil Roberts, fell from the back of the helicopter onto the snow-covered ground below.
Roberts activated his infrared strobe as the stricken helicopter flew, eventually making an emergency landing miles away.
Once on the ground, another Chinook helicopter picked up Chapman and the SEAL team to return to the peak and attempt to rescue Roberts. This time, the team successfully disembarked.
Once on the ground, Chapman was “the first to charge up the mountain toward the enemy,” President Donald Trump said at the 2018 Medal of Honor presentation.
Under fire from three directions, Chapman advanced through the snow and killed two enemy combatants who had been firing from a fortified position.
An enemy machine gunner then unleashed a hailstorm on the team from just 40 feet away. Chapman launched into a sprint toward the fighter but was hit by multiple enemy rounds, knocking him unconscious.
What followed has been the source of great infighting and dispute.
The SEAL team, believing Chapman to be dead, evacuated down the mountain to a position of safety.
Among the SEALs was Medal of Honor recipient Master Chief Special Warfare Operator Britt Slabinski, who maneuvered the team away from the onslaught while “carrying a seriously wounded teammate through deep snow [and] calling in fire on the enemy,” according to his medal citation.
Footage retrieved from a Predator drone and later analyzed, however, showed that Chapman was not dead.
In fact, he became active again after regaining consciousness, mounting a one-man offensive against the enemy, despite his wounds, and continuing to “fight relentlessly” until all his ammunition was expended and he could fight no more, according to his medal citation.
MQ-1 Predator drone footage showed Chapman’s final moments, during which he killed at least one insurgent in hand-to-hand combat, as the enemy swarmed his position and began firing on another helicopter that was arriving with a quick-reaction force.
After being wounded 16 times, Chapman was killed by a close-proximity gunshot to the heart. He was 36.
For years, the exact circumstances surrounding Chapman’s death remained a mystery. A 2016 report from The New York Times revealed that former Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, after seeing the drone footage of the engagement, was the first to recommend that Chapman’s Air Force Cross be upgraded to the Medal of Honor.
After cross-referencing the video feed from the drone and testimony by troops on the ground and in the air — an AC-130 air crew was also overhead — a 17-person investigative team was able to pinpoint actions taken by Chapman on that frigid mountainside where he took his last breath.
“John survived that initial wounding that he got, and continued to fight on for an hour,” Chapman’s squadron commander Col. Ken Rodriguez said.
“And then at a crucial moment, right at the end of his life, he sacrificed his life for the incoming quick reaction force, when he could have hunkered down and said, ‘Finally, the guys are coming in to get me,’” Rodriguez continued. “But instead he said, ‘If I don’t do something, others are going to die.’ He’s clearly a Medal of Honor-worthy warrior.”
When former President Trump presented the Medal of Honor to Chapman’s widow, Valerie Nessel, the Windsor Locks, Connecticut, native became the first airman to receive the nation’s highest award for valor since the Vietnam War.
Now, the portrayal of Chapman’s heroics will fall to the 41-year-old Marine veteran. Anne Hathaway has also been confirmed as a cast member alongside Driver.
A theatrical release date has yet to be announced.
J.D. Simkins is the executive editor of Military Times and Defense News, and a Marine Corps veteran of the Iraq War.
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