Lt. Col. Harlan Chapman, Vermilion businessman and Vietnam War POW, dies

Lorain County native Lt. Col. Harlan Page Chapman, a veteran who spent seven years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War, died on Monday at his home in Green Valley, Arizona. Chapman, 89, had lived in Arizona with his wife, Frances "Fran" Chapman, since 2015 and was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and early-stage dementia in 2017. Fran said that her husband seldom talked about his time imprisoned in Vietnam, but that it was one of the two main experiences that shaped the man he was. The other, she said, was growing up in Lorain County. Chapman was born in Carlisle Township on Sept. 27, 1934 to Josephine and Harlan T. Chapman. He graduated from Elyria High School in 1952 and went on to attend Miami University in Oxford, graduating in 1956. But, Chapman wanted to be a military man like his father, who had served in the First World War, his wife said. Chapman was a member of the Navy Reserve Officer Training Corps program at Miami and he was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps in 1956. He would go on to attend officer training school and the Naval Flight School. In 1964, Chapman joined Marine Fighter Squadron 212 and a year later the squadron deployed with Carrier Air Wing 16 aboard the USS Oriskany to Vietnam. In May 1965, Chapman began flying combat missions over North Vietnam until Nov. 5, 1965, when he was shot down during a bombing mission south of Hanoi. Chapman landed safely, but was quickly captured by North Vietnamese fighters and taken to Hoa Lo Prison in Hanoi, which American troops referred to sarcastically as the "Hanoi Hilton." "There was Vietnamese all around me," Chapman recalled to Chronicle reporter Jon Wysochanski in 2015. "I was conscious after a very soft landing, and I'm over my knees in mud — I wasn't going anywhere. The local militia got me and paraded me around, and I ended up in the Hanoi Hilton that night." Chapman was transferred between several different camps, often receiving beatings and other tortures for attempting to facilitate communication among prisoners. Chapman was imprisoned for 2,670 days, from Nov. 5, 1965, to Feb. 12, 1973, enduring torture, interrogation, deprivation and isolation at the hands of his captors. He was among the first group of prisoners to be released following the 1973 Paris Peace Accords, which ended the war. He returned to a large welcome party in Lorain County along with Burton Campbell, of Amherst, and Paul Kari, of Spencer, who also had been POWs. Fran said her husband almost never spoke about what he went through in Vietnam, and his interview with The Chronicle in 2015 was one of the only times he detailed his ordeal publicly. "He was not a public prisoner of war," Fran said. "Harlan was very quiet about it. He thought it was much more important that people know who he is now and his character, you know, as a local businessman with our appraisal business and other things. He didn't tout being a prisoner." The Chapmans operated a real-estate appraisal business out of their home in Vermilion for over 25 years. Fran said that she felt the reason Chapman finally decided to share his story was because it was a newspaper from back home asking. "I think some of it was that he mentally never left Lorain County," Fran said. "That's where his roots are since his great-great-great-grandfather came over after the Revolutionary War." Even after seven years in captivity, Chapman returned to service to his country, becoming a lieutenant colonel and commanding Marine Fighter/Attack Squadron 314 from July 1974 to his retirement from the Marines on July 31, 1976. Chapman and his first wife, Elizabeth, divorced shortly after his release, but he met Fran soon after through his friend and fellow POW, Navy Capt. Rod Knutsen. Along with his wife, Chapman is survived by his son from his first marriage, Harlan H. Chapman, and his stepchildren, Fran's daughter Dawn Hessel-Record and son Darold Hessel. Fran's other son, David Hessel, died before Chapman spoke with The Chronicle. Although Chapman did not speak much about his time as a POW, Fran was familiar with his fellow POWs and many of his experiences stemming from the ordeal. One of their first dates, in 1974, was at a homecoming party in Washington, D.C., in 1974, thrown by President Richard Nixon's administration, she told Wysochanski. More than 600 former POWs were present. A more intimate and meaningful trip the two made together was a visit back to Vietnam. Fran joined her husband on two return trips to Vietnam organized for American POWs and Harlan H. and Hessel-Record went on one of the trips. "He wanted them to see where he had been," Fran said. "We visited the shoot-down site in Hanoi. We traveled the countryside all the way from the Chinese border to Saigon (the former capital of South Vietnam, now named Ho Chi Minh City). It was a very meaningful tour." Susan Swain, Fran's sister, said that while the experience was hugely emotional for her sister and the kids, Chapman seemed largely unaffected. "The first time we went to the Hanoi Hilton, which is now a museum … as we walked through the cells, one prisoner of war that was a roommate of Harlan's looked at him and said, 'It doesn't feel like home — it doesn't smell like it used to," Fran said. "Harlan always said, the only difference is whether the doorknob is on the inside or outside." Fran said that what surprised her was the complete lack of anger her husband harbored against the people of Vietnam. "I think most of the prisoners, specifically Harlan, there is no animosity toward the Vietnamese people," she said. "These trips were really healing and informative for spouses and family. There was no bitterness that I heard from him or any of the other people." Chapman would answer questions briefly if asked, Swain said, but beyond that he never much discussed his time in Vietnam. "He never wanted it to be the defining moment of his life," she said. "It was an experience and it was an awful experience, but it also shaped him. I think he processed all of that and became this wonderful man, through his suffering and survival, that we all came to know." The last trip related to his captivity that Chapman went on was in August 2018, when he was invited to attend the funeral of fellow Vietnam pilot and POW, U.S. Sen. John McCain. Chapman was part of a small group of POWs who attended McCain's service at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. "What was really special for me was because he had never done this before, and I've known him for 40-plus years now, he wore his medals to the ceremony," Swain said. "Afterwards he sat at my dining room table in Alexandria, Virginia, with a small group of friends … and he explained each of the medals and what they were for. That was just a very special experience because, just like Fran said, my entire life with him, he never talked about it." Awards that Chapman received for his service included the Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Star, two Bronze Stars and a Prisoner of War Medal. Even more so than his time in Vietnam, Swain said she felt who Chapman was came from growing up in Lorain County on Lake Erie. "Lorain County and Ohio shaped who he is," she said. "He had every good Midwestern value that you can ascribe to the people of that area. He loved it. He loved life on the lake, he loved the people there, and he was an Ohioan through and through, even though his life took him to many parts of the world." One such value that Fran pointed to was Chapman's commitment to his family. "He was very much a family person," Fran said. "The kids were scattered all over the West, so we were always traveling to visit them." Chapman loved his stepchildren as his own, Fran said, and inspired both Darold and David to join the military. Darold was an aviator in the Marines, like his stepfather, and David became a pilot for the U.S. Navy. "They had lots of fun discussions over the superiority of different types of aircraft and the services," Fran said with a laugh. The kids spent their summers at a cabin that the Chapmans had owned for generations, located on the land owned by the 103rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry Memorial Foundation. The foundation manages a series of lakeside cottages along with a museum, built by the members of the 103rd Ohio Voluntary Infantry who fought in the Civil War. Cabin owners are descended from those original members, and the Chapman family cottage was built by Harlan Page Chapman, who fought with the 103rd and lived from 1844 to 1920. Serving the U.S. military goes even further back for the Chapman family, Fran said, stretching to the time of the Revolutionary War. Fran said that Chapman was enamored with his family's history, but was equally fascinated by the history of Lorain County, the U.S. military and politics, both historical and contemporary. "When I met him, the cottage that they had … in Sheffield Lake, had a big wall map of Andersonville Prison," Fran said. Andersonville was the common name of Camp Sumter, a Confederate prisoner-of-war camp famous for its mistreatment of thousands of Union soldiers. "I said 'What is this? This is too coincidental," Fran said. Another of Chapman's great loves was the outdoors. Fran said he loved the shorelines of Lake Erie more than anywhere else in the world, and the two of them raced sailboats competitively out of Vermilion for years. He and Fran went on multiple "double century" bike rides, which are trips of over 200 miles. Fran said that Chapman was always competitive and athletic. He had played football at Elyria High School and even credited the lessons he learned on the field with helping him survive his torture. But beyond that, she said, physical activity helped Chapman recover and thrive after years of deprivation and limited mobility. "He knew that staying in shape was the key to his longevity, especially after what his body had been through," Fran said. "He just committed to it." After their kids were grown, the pair started to spend their winters somewhere a bit more exotic than Sheffield Lake — vacationing in either San Miguel de Allende or Puerto Vallarta, both cities in Mexico. As Chapman grew older though, Fran said she decided it was time to move their wintering spot north of the border. After one winter spent in Florida, the Chapmans purchased a home in Green Valley and moved there year-round by 2016. They were initially very active in Green Valley's large retired community. "When we first arrived and he was doing well, we were playing a lot of pickleball," she said. "He was in a number of classes for political discussions and to the day he died he was an avid reader. (Before he died) he couldn't understand what he was reading anymore but he loved local history, color and politics." Fran said that more than anything else, even as he started to forget more and be present less, Chapman spoke of home. "He was consciously asking regularly, 'When are we going home?'" she said. "That was on his mind, and Lake Erie and Vermilion were now home." Fran said she thinks Chapman would be happy to know that she is returning home to Vermilion on June 1, to stay at the Crystal Cove Condominiums, where a flag stands at half-staff in Harlan Chapman's honor. Chapman will be buried in Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, but no date has been determined yet. Contact Owen MacMillan at (440) 329-7123 or omacmillan@chroniclet.com.