Go this from a vietnam vet friend of mine, he was 1st Air Cav, makes fun of marines a lot, but respects the hell out of them.
******
This will make you proud!
Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored
the uniform he wears.
Meet Brian Chontosh.
He is a graduate of Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991 and
a proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband
and about-to-be father. First lieutenant (now Captain) in the United
States Marine Corps and a genuine hero.
The secretary of the Navy said so.
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. 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 jerks who abused the Iraqi
prisoners. 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 GI's & Marines 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 like shooting
fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish. 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 M 16 and a Beretta and 228 years of
Marine Corps pride. He ran down the trench with its mortars and
riflemen, machine guns and grenadiers and he killed them all. He
fought with the M 16 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 AK 47
and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up
another dead man's AK 47 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 we have men like Brian Chontosh wearing our uniform.
******
This will make you proud!
Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored
the uniform he wears.
Meet Brian Chontosh.
He is a graduate of Churchville-Chili Central School class of 1991 and
a proud graduate of the Rochester Institute of Technology. Husband
and about-to-be father. First lieutenant (now Captain) in the United
States Marine Corps and a genuine hero.
The secretary of the Navy said so.
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. 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 jerks who abused the Iraqi
prisoners. 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 GI's & Marines 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 like shooting
fish in a barrel and the Marines were the fish. 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 M 16 and a Beretta and 228 years of
Marine Corps pride. He ran down the trench with its mortars and
riflemen, machine guns and grenadiers and he killed them all. He
fought with the M 16 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 AK 47
and fought with that until it was out of ammo. Then he picked up
another dead man's AK 47 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 we have men like Brian Chontosh wearing our uniform.
