Records do not support award claims by actor

[CommunityEditor]

The amphibious monster in “Creature from the Black Lagoon” was a fearsome beast, a threat to enemies on land and water who survived multiple attempts on his life.

In other words, Gill Man, the scaly star of the 1954 classic cult film, possessed some of the same characteristics as a good Marine.

Perhaps it’s fitting, then, that one of the men associated most closely with the monster is Ben Chapman, a former Marine who was decorated for service in Korea, but best known as one of the men who brought the Universal Pictures’ monster to life.

Chapman died Feb. 21 of congestive heart failure at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, said his longtime partner, Merrilee Kazarian. He was 79.

His death came more than 57 years after surviving the 1950 Battle of Chosin Reservoir, where the private with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines was one of about 40,000 leathernecks and soldiers who fought off more than 100,000 Chinese troops in temperatures that dipped to 30 degrees below zero.

Kazarian said Chapman spoke often of his time in the Corps. He was also proud of regaining the use of his feet, which doctors considered amputating after they were terribly frostbitten near Chosin.

“He told them that if they chopped off his feet, he’d cut chop off their (testicles),” his son, Benjamin Chapman III, 29, said with a laugh in a Feb. 27 telephone interview from Honolulu.

In a 2005 interview with the Web site Icons of Fright, Chapman said he arrived in Korea as part of the Inchon Landing, a successful amphibious assault in September 1950 against North Korea’s People’s Army that was a turning point in the war. He also recalled the battle at Chosin Reservoir.

“The military said it was a bad situation and everyone should pull out — like a retreat,” he said. “That’s where there’s a very famous quote coming from our commanding officer, General Oliver P. Smith…: ‘Retreat, Hell!’ The Marine Corps never retreats.”

For his service in Korea, Chapman was decorated with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts. He left the Corps in 1952 as a sergeant, his son said.

Chapman’s connection to Gill Man, though, was central to his identity.

It was partly by luck that Chapman received the role, he acknowledged in news accounts over the years. The break came at 24, after he moved to California and became a contract player with Universal, getting the part because of his imposing 6-foot-5 frame.

Being Gill Man was complicated at times. Chapman and Ricou Browning, who wore the Gill Man suit in underwater scenes, didn’t receive any mention in the credits for the movie, and when Universal decided to produce two sequels, Chapman was left out.

“Sure, I kind of resented that they didn’t call me back, but what are you going to do?” Chapman told the Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal in 1999. “My option [with the studio] was not picked up. You can’t dwell on these things.”

But Chapman’s Gill Man role was important to him right to the end. A real estate developer after leaving Hollywood, he appeared at movie monster festivals across the country regularly, and was known for his affability with fans.

“(I have) many terrific memories of seeing Ben holding court at his autograph table, chatting it up with fans,” wrote one fan on Universal Monster Army, an Internet message board, after hearing about Chapman’s death. “Kids LOVED him and he gave it right back to all his fans, big or small.”

A 9 a.m. funeral will be held at St. Augustine By-The-Sea Church in Honolulu on March 29, giving family and friends across the U.S. time to plan for the trip, Kazarian said. Chapman’s ashes will be scattered off the coast of Waikiki Beach from Hawaiian outrigger canoes.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...manweb_022708/
Video of Interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lXP6Qj_4-w


Ben Chapman menaces Julie Adams in this publicity photo from the movie, "Creature From the Black Lagoon." Chapman and Ricou Browning, who wore the Gill Man suit in underwater scenes, didn't receive any mention in the credits for the movie, and when Universal decided to produce two sequels, Chapman was left out.

[CommunityEditor]

The late Ben Chapman, star of the 1954 film “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” didn’t confine his acting to playing the part of a classic movie monster.

He also fictionalized parts of his own life, telling family and fans alike that he had earned medals for valor after fighting at the legendary battle of Chosin Reservoir.

Chapman, who died Feb. 21 at 79, never received the Silver Star, Bronze Star and two Purple Hearts he had claimed for decades, according to Marine Corps officials and a copy of Chapman’s military Report of Separation.

In fact, while Chapman deployed to Korea with 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, records show he did not arrive there until Dec. 17, 1950, 11 days after the Battle of Chosin Reservoir ended.

The discovery comes one month after obituaries published in newspapers across the country — including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and Marine Corps Times — memorialized Chapman as a decorated war hero.

Chapman’s family in Hawaii disputed the notion that Chapman may have been a faker.

“I don’t know; it must be wrong,” said his son, Benjamin Chapman III. “I have a box with all of his awards.”

But Chapman III, 29, a former Marine sergeant who served in Iraq in 2003, said his father kept no documentation for his medals. And officials at the Marine Corps Awards branch in Quantico, Va., said Chapman’s name does not appear in a database of Silver Star recipients.

The records call into question decades of stories Chapman told reporters and family members alike.

In one 2005 interview with the Web site Icons of Fright, for example, Chapman said he arrived in Korea as part of the Inchon Landing, a successful amphibious assault in September 1950 against North Korea’s People’s Army. He also recalled the battle at Chosin Reservoir, which took place from Nov. 27 to Dec. 6, 1950.

“The military said it was a bad situation and everyone should pull out — like a retreat,” he said. “The Chinese came down with 20 divisions and they surrounded us. When they found out they had the USMC surrounded, the word was, ‘No prisoners. Kill every one of them.’ So we fought our way out and we did make our way out.”

But records show Chapman was at Camp Pendleton, Calif., during the Inchon Landing and the Battle at Chosin. For his time in Korea, he received a Korean Service Medal with one star — a medal bestowed on anyone who served in Korea during wartime — and a United Nations Medal, but nothing more.

Chapman III also said in two interviews with Marine Corps Times that his father always said he left the Corps as a sergeant, but documents and officials said Chapman’s highest rank was corporal, even after he re-enlisted as a reservist through 1955.

Marine Corps Times launched an inquiry into Chapman’s record after family members said he received two Purple Hearts for frostbite suffered during the Chosin campaign — a claim that is all but impossible, said Doug Sterner, a decorated Vietnam-era Army veteran recognized by Congress for uncovering fraudulent medal claims.

Unable to reach a conclusion by press time, Marine Corps Times ran a March 10 story noting Chapman’s death and ties to the Corps, attributing his purported medals to Chapman III. The newspaper received a copy of Chapman’s Report of Separation after publication.

Sterner said Chapman’s obituaries are just one example of the lives of veterans being overstated after their deaths.

In one recent example, the service record of Billy Walkabout, an Army veteran decorated for service in Vietnam, was exaggerated after he died March 7, 2007. Several organizations, including The Associated Press and VFW Magazine, reported initially that he received a Distinguished Service Cross, a Purple Heart, five Silver Stars and five Bronze Stars.

VFW Magazine ran a correction in its March 2008 issue stating that a check with the National Personnel Records Center revealed Walkabout actually received a Distinguished Service Cross upgraded from his single Silver Star, one Purple Heart, one Bronze Star and the Army Commendation Medal.


Article: http://www.militarytimes.com/news/20...hapman_031708/

How many servicemembers that abruptly left the military at the end of their contracts have had their records screwed up?

While it is possible that Ben Chapman made up those awards, it is also possible that Ben Chapman actually did receive those awards in formations with his commander, and kept those awards close to his heart, while the paperwork got lost or screwed up somehow. Usually those who receive awards related to combat and do not plan on re-enlisting do not bother to get their paperwork fixed. Going into admin to fix paperwork related to combat awards is embarassing, in that it is selfish compared to those who died in combat, and it usually takes a long time.

Ben Chapman could have been happy with merely getting out of the military, keeping his awards in a little box, which his family claims they still have, instead of fighting with admin to get them entered in to his record book.

Regardless, Ben Chapman is dead, and his commanders are probably all dead, leaving us with no way of knowing whether his records were screwed up or not.

[ringjamesa]

I would agree with you except that it seem as if in this case, the records were not lost;

"Unable to reach a conclusion by press time, Marine Corps Times ran a March 10 story noting Chapman’s death and ties to the Corps, attributing his purported medals to Chapman III. The newspaper received a copy of Chapman’s Report of Separation after publication."

That's a fancy way of saying they got the DD 214 or a similar document. If the awards were recieved during that preiod of service, they would be on there. Also, if a copy of his orders to Korea were obtained and he wasn't even there when the battle took place, it is hard to argue that one as well.

Obiviously Mr. Lamothe has never been a part of the beauracy that is the United States Military. Where so often one hand doesn't know the other is wiping it's own ass. How plausible is it that a military that routinely shoots at it's own troops does not have the most accurate record keeping from 60 years ago. I think it is very sad that the issue would surface in such a manner as to tarnish the image of a person who championed for the same USMC that is currently slandering his name in multiple papers and also by a guy, Lamothe, who is probably some baseball geek trying to write enough articles and blogs to make it "big" time. Preoccupied with his own selfish endeavors that he does not realize the effect his slanderous words have on those friends and family of the deceased. Walk a mile in another man's shoes, sir, before you begin to tell me who deserves what.

Besides Lamothe is a french name and we all know there credibility. The French were quite the sales agent to the Saddam regime during the times of embargo.

Dan Lamothe --
How dare you drag an American veteran through the muck post-mortem?!
Is this what our current Marines have to look forward to in their old age, should they be lucky enough to reach it? A reporter spitting on their grave via a scathing obituary?

You write:
"The late Ben Chapman, star of the 1954 film 'Creature from the Black Lagoon,' didn’t confine his acting to playing the part of a classic movie monster.

He also fictionalized parts of his own life."

Really? Is that a fact? No, it's not, and I, for one don't appreciate your smugness as you shred this man's reputation. You must have felt real cute calling Chapman a life-long actor, comparing his heroic service to our country to the role he played in Hollywood. How do you have the audacity to write such an article and still call yourself a journalist?
If Chapman was on record time and again about his war metals and experiences in the past, why didn't you or anyone else bother to check the facts and confront him then? You know, when he was ALIVE?
I guess a dead man tells no tales, eh? Besides, why let the truth get in the way of a good story, right?
If the records don't match the information Chapman gave it's because of human error on the part of the military at a time when there weren't sophisticated computer programs for such information. Anyone who believes otherwise, and that's obviously you, is slimier than the Creature of the Black Lagoon himself.
Lamothe, you should do the right thing and apologize to this man's family and the legions of fans he still has who know Chapman's character, his love and support of the Marine Corps, and his honesty about his past.
-A Former Marine Corps Times Reader