From: John Seidts (jseidts@astory.com)
Date: Sun May 16 2004 - 10:59:26 PDT
I don't think anybody is questioning the bravery of the soldiers in Iraq. I
do think they have done some idiotic stuff with these photos (and I don't
personally see anything wrong with what the named personnel did- losing side
doesn't get to make the rules). But I'll tell you something I heard from a
friend who received a call on his birthday from his nephew stationed there
now. He is a Marine, and they have been told not to fire at anything, even
if fired upon. They have also been told that if they kill anyone, they will
be arrested and immediately punished.
BULLSHIT! If I got that order, I'd tell the officer reading it to go get
screwed, and just try to arrest me for defending myself.
Whatever military success we had there is rapidly evaporating with the
insurgencies going on and the bad press we are getting. This is sounding
more and more like Vietnam, at least as far as the American public opinions
go, and while we are deciding how we should think and act through our
votes/activism/legislature, Americans are being killed- if one of them has
been killed because of this stupid order they received, that order is wrong
and the officer/appointee/commander-in-chief who gave it has to be punished
for putting our soldier's in harm's way without giving them the tools to
adequately protect themselves. I'll paraphrase another (more successful)
military man who warred there in the peninsula. "There is not one American
Life worth the whole of the struggle on the Arabian Peninsula." If you
don't know who that came from, then look for the book Seven Pillars of
Wisdom, and READ it. You might understand more about this war than our own
leaders do.
----- Original Message -----
From: "TonyM" <amugno@optonline.net>
To: "Military Vehicles Mailing List" <mil-veh@mil-veh.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 15, 2004 11:50 PM
Subject: [MV] 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. 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.
>
>
> - by Bob Lonsberry, 2004
>
>
> http://www.lonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=1400&go=4
>
>
>
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