Didn't make the news

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dun

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SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE NEWS

- by Bob Lonsberry © 2004

Maybe you'd like to hear about something other than idiot Reservists and naked Iraqis.

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 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 he 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.
 
I sent your article out on email to some buddies and got a link back to the USMC article...

ChontoshLR.jpg


http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000. ... 0456162723

Craig-TX
 
Stories like these tend to exaggerate. Sound like a story from out of one of Vin Diesel or Stallone movies..... That is why this story didn't make the news because there is no creditablity behind the story because as I said they tend to exaggerate. There are way too much nationalism in this story..... THere is an American hero....remember Jessica Lynch? Her comrades? They are heroes.....so don't tell me the media doesn't pass around heroes on the news because they do..you aren't paying attention.
BTW, there is a professional baseball player who went to Churchville-Chili HS, can't remember his name but that is where he went...
 
Sounds like he did what he was trained to do, and did it to the best of his ability! Any family should be proud to have him as a member. Hopefully he'll be home soon!
 
greenpasture78":3k8iz4vx said:
Stories like these tend to exaggerate. Sound like a story from out of one of Vin Diesel or Stallone movies..... That is why this story didn't make the news because there is no creditablity behind the story because as I said they tend to exaggerate. There are way too much nationalism in this story..... THere is an American hero....remember Jessica Lynch? Her comrades? They are heroes.....so don't tell me the media doesn't pass around heroes on the news because they do..you aren't paying attention.
BTW, there is a professional baseball player who went to Churchville-Chili HS, can't remember his name but that is where he went...

And the media doesn't exaggerate the anti-American stories. You must watch CNN the Cresent News Network. No creditability :shock: You only are able to enjoy your freedoms to post because of Marines like this. The soldier has bought the freedoms we enjoy with blood for over 200 hundred years. How can you have too much Nationalism were at WAR for our very way of life. My family has fought and died in every war since the Revolutionary War to this one. So tumble bugs like you can state your opinion. Nuff said haven't gotten this riled in years.
 
greenpasture78":8fm2s1yr said:
Stories like these tend to exaggerate. Sound like a story from out of one of Vin Diesel or Stallone movies..... That is why this story didn't make the news because there is no creditablity behind the story because as I said they tend to exaggerate. There are way too much nationalism in this story..... THere is an American hero....remember Jessica Lynch? Her comrades? They are heroes.....so don't tell me the media doesn't pass around heroes on the news because they do..you aren't paying attention.
BTW, there is a professional baseball player who went to Churchville-Chili HS, can't remember his name but that is where he went...

So this story is fiction? has no credibility?
But that scratched Senator that is running for president his story of bravery is credible?
Get real
 
Well said Campground. I'm sick of hearing the bashing on the war. All the American people get to see is the negativity and the "horrible destruction" give me a break there is so much out there that they need to take a look at and realize that even if they don't think it was our business something had to be done and we did it we didn't tuck our tail between our legs and cower off like so many wanted us to do. We stood our ground and invaded theirs, took out a dictator, and liberated so many people it's unreal. The people that are complaining about this war need to spend some time with a soldier or at least somebody with some common sense.
ok its time for me to step down

Jake
 

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