Main >> Hobbies & Interests >> My First Home Page

 
Page 31
Welcome to Page 31
This article was sent out to everyone
on my E-mail list on
April 19, 2005
If you would like to review some of my recent E-mail
please visit my Email Index.
Or click here for infomation on How to Become a Christian
 You can read my biographical information at TEXANinFLA
Want to Know More?
The Story of Brian Chontosh
Jeff Shepherd
One of my readers shared this story with me. It is about a year old but if you haven’t read it, it will make you proud that you are an American. It thrills me to know that there are men serving our country like Brian Chontosh and many others who may never be recognized like this but who are equally as brave. I also looked this up on Urban Legends and have included their comments at the end.  

Maybe you'd like to hear about a real American, somebody who honored the uniform he wears. 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 (now Captain) 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. 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. 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 28 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 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.
Here’s what Urban Legends has to say about this:
This Story is confirmed as True.

Navy Cross, established by an Act of Congress in 1919, is the naval service's second highest award and may be awarded to any person who, while serving with the Navy or Marine Corps, distinguishes himself/herself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor. To earn a Navy Cross the act to be commended must be performed in the presence of great danger or at great personal risk and must be performed in such a manner as to render the individual highly conspicuous among others of equal grade, rate, experience, or position of responsibility.

On 6 May 2004, Marine Capt. Brian R. Chontosh of Rochester, N.Y., received the Navy Cross "for extraordinary heroism while serving as Combined Anti-Armor Platoon Commander, Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom March 25, 2003."

The details of the heroism that earned Capt. Chontosh his medal are provided on the Marine Corps News web site:

While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalition tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.

He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advance directly at the enemy position, enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.

He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.

When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.

When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.

The text of the message quoted at the head of this page comes from a 7 May 2004 article by Bob Lonsberry entitled "SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS." The correct attribution for this piece has been omitted from some of the versions circulated via e-mail.

My Comments: I wonder why the national media does not share stories like this with the American public. It doesn’t make much sense does it? One would think that this is certainly news worthy but then maybe my sense of news is based more on patriotism and American pride than it is on what sells newspapers and commercials. Frankly, I think this story would be very appealing to the American public so maybe that isn’t the issue. Perhaps the news media’s motivation is more sinister than I realize. If I had the opportunity to question them as they question our politicians I would like to hear them explain themselves on this one. Why didn’t they report this story? I don’t remember hearing about it do you? Since, I don’t have that opportunity one can only wonder. I think I’m going to forward this to some of them to see if they will respond.

Jeff Shepherd
The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time
with the blood of patriots and saints. –Thomas Jefferson
Since March 28, 2003

 

page created with Easy Designer