[Shotimes] True story

[Shylo McKinsey]

Wow. 

Dammit, us amry boys ain't supposed to cry. That boy
is a true American Hero. Too bad the damned media is
"in charge" of Iraq...

CPL (Inactive) Shylo McKinsey
E-Troop CRAZYHORSE

M1-A...uh...SHO

--- "James F. Ryan III" <jryan@multitechmail.com>
wrote:
> Slow day on the list so I thought I'd pass this
> along.  It's an
> unbelievable story, but it's true.
>  
> 
> SOMETHING THAT DIDN'T MAKE THE
> NEWS
>  
>  
>  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.  Captain in
>  the United States Marine Corps.
>  
>  And a genuine hero.
>  
>  The secretary of the Navy said so yesterday.
>  
>  At 29 Palms in California Capt. 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.  1st
> Lt. 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 1st Lt. 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.
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