Alone At Dawn (book review)

Title: Alone At Dawn
Authors: Dan Schilling & Lori Chapman Longfritz
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Date: 2019
Pages: 329

Alone At Dawn (book review)

The authors, Dan Schilling, 30 year special operations and Combat Control veteran, and Lori Chapman Longfritz, sister to John Chapman, set out to tell the complete true story of John Chapman, a Medal of Honor recipient, in this book. It took them several years to be able to compile all the true information on what happened in one of the deadliest battles in the Afghanistan war.

It begins with the childhood story of who John Chapman was and how excelled at everything that he did. While in high school in the 1980s, John was an expert swimmer and diving board diver. It caught the attention of many.

Once he graduated high school, he chose to go into the Air Force where he soon learned about a special operations group called the Combat Controllers. He focused extremely hard on becoming one. Along with another friend, they were accepted into the program. With about 120 that started into the program, that included other special forces, only he and his friend graduated as Combat Controllers. Only 30 others graduated into other special force programs.

Dan and Lori do a great job at describing the training they went through and the history of Combat Controllers that goes back to the Veit Nam war. Combat Controllers are individuals that have trained with the Army Delta Force and Navy Seals to become some of the best of the best. Their focus is to control the combat areas with air cover protection and to do search and rescue missions.

Over the years John desired to be able to go into an actual mission with his new position. He was married and had two girls, but still that desire worked on his heart.

The one and only time he saw combat was in March, 2002. It was a mission to support the Delta Force and Navy Seals on a mountain top mission in Afghanistan. As they landed on the mountaintop, they were immediately under fire by the enemy. Several were instantly killed, and John took some hits. The team left him for dead as they retreated down a small way from the drop off location.

The main highlight of this story is how John survived those hits to attack the enemy and protect others. Sadly, in the end he gave his life to save the others. After a lot of research, it was determined that he directly saved the lives of about 30 other soldiers. Several of those would go on later to go above and beyond the call of duty to save the lives of several hundred other people and soldiers. In August of 2018, John Chapman was honored with the national Medal of Honor by the then President Donald Trump.

As one reads this story, there are a lot of abbreviations and acronyms that are military terms that one will come across. Each of them are described and then further used. One with a military background will have an easier time to understand many of the abbreviations.

I do recommend reading this book, though not extremely highly. It does have some foul language at times throughout it, though not very extensive. It will open one’s eyes to the world of special forces and what they can be faced with. John’s life shows one of loyalty and sacrifice without second thoughts. His story will bring tears to your eyes, but also standing in honor of a man who sacrificed his life so that others may live.