Fait_Maker

Meet Brian Chontosh.

Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991. Proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband and about-to-be father. First lieutenant in the United States Marine Corps.

And a genuine hero.

The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.

At 29 Palms in California Brian Chontosh was presented with the Navy Cross, the second highest award for combat bravery the United States can bestow.

That's a big deal.

But you won't see it on the network news tonight, and all you read in Brian's hometown newspaper was two paragraphs of nothing. Instead, it was more blather about some mental defective MPs who acted like animals.

The odd fact about the American media in this war is that it's not covering the American military. The most plugged-in nation in the world is receiving virtually no true information about what its warriors are doing.

Oh, sure, there's a body count. We know how many Americans have fallen. And we see those same casket pictures day in and day out. And we're almost on a first-name basis with the pukes who abused the Iraqi prisoners. And we know all about improvised explosive devices and how we lost Fallujah and what Arab public-opinion polls say about us and how the world hates us.

We get a non-stop feed of gloom and doom.

But we don't hear about the heroes.

The incredibly brave GIs who honorably do their duty. The ones our grandparents would have carried on their shoulders down Fifth Avenue.

The ones we completely ignore.

Like Brian Chontosh.

It was a year ago on the march into Baghdad. Brian Chontosh was a platoon leader rolling up Highway 1 in a humvee.

When all hell broke loose.

Ambush city.

The young Marines were being cut to ribbons. Mortars, machine guns, rocket propelled grenades. And the kid out of Churchville was in charge. It was do or die and it was up to him.

So he moved to the side of his column, looking for a way to lead his men to safety. As he tried to poke a hole through the Iraqi line his humvee came under direct enemy machine gun fire.

It was fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish.

And Brian Chontosh gave the order to attack. He told his driver to floor the humvee directly at the machine gun emplacement that was firing at them. And he had the guy on top with the .50 cal unload on them.

Within moments there were Iraqis slumped across the machine gun and Chontosh was still advancing, ordering his driver now to take the humvee directly into the Iraqi trench that was attacking his Marines. Over into the battlement the humvee went and out the door Brian Chontosh bailed, carrying an M16 and a Beretta and 228 years of Marine Corps pride.

And he ran down the trench.

With its mortars and riflemen, machineguns and grenadiers.

And he killed them all.

He fought with the M16 until it was out of ammo. Then he fought with the Beretta until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up a dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up another dead man's AK47 and fought with that until it was out of ammo.

At one point he even fired a discarded Iraqi RPG into an enemy cluster, sending attackers flying with its grenade explosion.

When he was done Brian Chontosh had cleared 200 yards of entrenched Iraqis from his platoon's flank. He had killed more than 20 and wounded at least as many more.

But that's probably not how he would tell it.

He would probably merely say that his Marines were in trouble, and he got them out of trouble. Hoo-ah, and drive on.

"By his outstanding display of decisive leadership, unlimited courage in the face of heavy enemy fire, and utmost devotion to duty, 1st Lt. Chontosh reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the Marine Corps and the United States Naval Service."

That's what the citation says.

And that's what nobody will hear.

That's what doesn't seem to be making the evening news. Accounts of American valor are dismissed by the press as propaganda, yet accounts of American difficulties are heralded as objectivity. It makes you wonder if the role of the media is to inform, or to depress ? to report or to deride. To tell the truth, or to feed us lies.

But I guess it doesn't matter.

We're going to turn out all right.

As long as men like Brian Chontosh wear our uniform.
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This is absolutely true.... per Snopes

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fr1j0l3

No doubt.


Big ol salute to our brothers and sisters in arms.

Wintermute

Not to take anything away from heroic actions, but they don't make the news because they don't have political significance. Weather US soldiers win by efficiently and safely killing from a distance or by diving into a trench guns blazing isn't the bottom line.

The things that matter politically are the oppinions of the Iraqis, the G8 leaders and their electorates, the UN, the Red Cross report and the bigest newspaper editors. That's the bottom line.

Heroic actions are for the movies and there are plenty of them singing the praises of the military. Brian Chontosh might get a Speilberg film based on him one day.

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Wintermute

Play EVE online. It's like being an accounting addict in space.

www.MakePovertyHistory.com

Sniper

*Proud salut to him, and everyone else in the US army*

God Bless 'em ALL!

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DudeMan

yes but you have to say there is a clear bias on the news which should not be there, when we say that there is heavy fighting especially over falluja the news here critisized how the us had lost the territory but they did not choose to comment on how many died and the fact that it was a good decision to save lifes.... the bias is there and it shouldnt be thats the bottom line.

phyllis

That's the sad part...period... I have a feeling there's a lot of good going on in Iraq, but the slanted media is only going to show what sells, not about the power that is restored in areas, or the drinking water that's now safe to drink in such-and-such town...etc...[rant] friggin media sucks...can't trust any of them, they all have their own political motives behind their press..... death and destruction is what sells....*sheesh*
[/rant]

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Geisha

This read like the game Dead to Rights. Absolutely amazing... *salutes*

I think I see Wintermute's point about newsworthy items being things that affect the big picture. However, I think we need more positive stories like this one to help overall morale. We especially don't need to be giving the impression that the people who abused prisoners are REPRESENTATIVE of our military, and exclusive press implies that by omission.

...Did that make sense?

leejo

Perfectly.

Zebra

Please explain how buying off the people who were killing Americans a few weeks ago is a good decision.

CingularDuality

How about Operation: Enduring Support which just took place in Dallas? Details and photos can be found at www.ankarlo.net

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DudeMan

please explain how the us troops bought anyone off.

Zebra

Not US troops - US politicians. Fallujah's controlled by a Saddam-era Iraqi army general we appointed. His unit is mostly made up of the same Iraqis we were fighting a few weeks ago, who are now on our payroll. And look what they're up to:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...abi_fallujah_1

DudeMan

well when a politician enters a battlefield things are bound to get ****ed up beyond all recognition.

leejo

I see the situation in Falluja as having been dictated by the military leadership, to the Bush admin's credit!

Buying off people who were killing Americans a few weeks ago is a good idea if it furthers our strategic goal - a peaceful and democratic Iraq. However, the fact that we didn't go in with 1000 tanks and kill everyone in sight does not mean that the hunt is over.

Zebra

The long-term strategic goal isn't furthered by rewarding insurgents. What have they learned? That if they just hold out for a few weeks they'll get what they want? There's nothing peaceful or democratic about Fallujah at the moment either.