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At the soon-to-open National Medal of Honor Museum, a timeline of the award’s history will feature colorless, grainy drone footage of Air Force Tech. Sgt. John Chapman’s acts of self-sacrifice on an Afghan mountain in a skirmish that led to his death in 2002.A room away, an exhibit filled with personal items and mementos will spotlight the life story of retired Master Chief Petty Officer Britt K. Slabinski, a Navy SEAL who led the team Chapman died defending.Both soldiers received a Medal of Honor in 2018.As the museum prepares to open, the perception it will elevate Slabinski over Chapman has reignited a nearly decade-long public dispute between the Navy and Air Force over the legitimacy of Slabinski’s Medal of Honor story. Museum officials say they aren’t taking sides, and exhibits are based on the government’s verified stories of recipients’ valor.“Our position is: Once Congress and the president give it to you, you have it, you’re a Medal of Honor recipient, and we’ll tell your story,” Benji Englander, a spokesperson for the museum, told the Report.Members of the Air Force community, in accusations recently spurred by Chapman’s older sister, have said the museum is giving preferential treatment to Slabinski, who sits on its board of directors.Slabinski did not respond to the Report’s requests for comment.The National Medal of Honor Museum, set to open in Arlington March 25, will be the country’s central institution preserving the stories of the 3,519 recipients of the highest U.S. military decoration for valor in combat.What is the National Medal of Honor?

President Abraham Lincoln established the Medal of Honor in 1861, establishing the United States’ highest recognition of valor in combat.

Earned through every major conflict in the nation’s history since the Civil War, the Medal of Honor commemorates soldiers who were willing to risk their lives to protect their country.A mission of valor, controversy Air Force Tech. Sgt. John A. Chapman photographed during deployment. (Courtesy photo | U.S. Air Force)Lori Chapman Longfritz, Chapman’s sister, said she’s stayed quiet on the situation for years, but she now cannot stand to see her brother’s name being diminished to make room for Slabinski, who she believes “left John to fight and die alone.”Since 2002, Slabinski has repeatedly rejected accusations that he left Chapman behind during the mission, in which Chapman led the SEAL team’s charge up the summit of a 10,000-foot snow-covered mountain and took an enemy bunker. Slabinski has publicly taken credit for these feats. Longfritz and other supporters of Chapman have long accused the Navy of suppressing Chapman’s heroism, according to The Washington Post.“If both John and Slabinski had exhibits, and John’s was accurate, and Slabinski’s was accurate, then I would be fine,” she said. “If neither of them had an exhibit, I would be fine.”Old fights resurfaceLongfritz reopened the stolen valor debate with a series of Facebook posts in early January that accused the museum of making false promises about the scope of her brother’s exhibit.She made the Facebook posts after the museum told her Chapman would be featured in a timeline of the award’s history, while Slabinski’s story will be featured on its own, according to Longfritz’s email communication with the museum she shared with the Report.She attributes the larger size of Slabinski’s exhibit to the museum being “SEAL controlled.”In addition to Slabinski’s role on the museum’s board, he is the sitting president of the Congressional Medal of Honor Society. Slabinski’s wife also works at the museum. President Donald Trump presents the Medal of Honor to retired Master Chief Petty Officer Britt Slabinski during a 2018 ceremony at the White House in Washington, D.C. (Courtesy photo | Raymond D. Diaz III, U.S. Department of Defense)Chris Cassidy, president and CEO of the museum, is a retired Navy SEAL. Two more former SEALs sit on the museum’s board of directors, which has no Air Force veterans. Six former Air Force soldiers sit on the museum’s advisory board next to four Navy veterans.Englander, the museum spokesperson, denied that Slabinski’s place on the board influenced the size of his exhibit. He said the museum has had six other recipients on the board and only three, Slabinski included, have a significant exhibit.Museum’s practical considerationsThe museum will feature information about every Medal of Honor recipient in some capacity, Cassidy said in an October 2024 interview with the Report. However, the museum’s floor space can hold only about 342 stories, Englander said.About 80 stories will feature more in-depth exhibits that take up more floor space and include artifacts from their lives or videos of their achievements. Both Chapman and Slabinski will be among these in-depth stories, Englander said. Chapman’s permanent place on the museum’s timeline will feature the video of his actions, as he was the first recipient whose heroism was verified through drone footage. Traditionally, cases rely primarily on witness accounts.Chapman’s exhibit will not feature personal artifacts, the spokesman said, but it will include items that are “commemorative” of his life.Museum officials have been in “close contact” with Chapman’s widow, but when asking for artifacts, the museum wants to be sensitive and not ask for “precious family heirlooms” from the families of deceased soldiers.Slabinski’s exhibit will include multiple artifacts telling his life’s story and, consequently, will take up slightly more space than Chapman’s. Eventually, another Medal of Honor recipient’s story will take the space as the museum changes exhibits.“I think what people are getting hung up on is that (Chapman) is not on one of these large pedestals in the center of the room,” Englander said. “The people who are there are just there because the artifacts we were able to get from their loved ones are larger.”Englander said recipients’ stories would lose their impact in a “1-million-square-foot museum with 3,500 stories.” “You’ve got to tell the ones you can tell, do them justice, and then tell the next ones in the next (rotation),” he said. As of Feb. 11, the museum had not been in contact with Longfritz about her Facebook posts, Longfritz said. Englander said he hopes the arguments around Chapman and Slabinski will not distract from the museum’s mission to highlight the lives of the recipients.“It’s only two out of 3,526 stories,” he said. “It would be a shame for any one of those stories to be diminished because of just a fight between two of them.”Drew Shaw is a reporting fellow for the Arlington Report. Contact him at drew.shaw@fortworthreport.org or @shawlings601. At the Arlington Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.