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 Ladypeacek on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 05:52 am:

Ohh that is wonderful to read!! I feel so good to read about men like this. The men who really are protecting our country. The men who are willing to die so that we can live. My dh was part of Operation Enduring Freedom over in the desert before the war and although he never went to combat i know in my heart that he would be one of these men along with some many others we know in his shop, squadron and on his base. This is why i know that these men exist even though we look right past them to see all the ones who are not doing the job. The media does not appreciate that without The Brian Chontosh's they would not be able to be there writing about all that bad stuff they chose to write about!

By Amy~moderator on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 12:25 pm:

Colette, thanks so much for sharing! I'm going to show this to my dh tonight.

By John on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 04:18 pm:

Here is a picture and article about him on the Marine Corps web site:

http://www.usmc.mil/marinelink/mcn2000.nsf/lookupstoryref/200456162723

BTW, he since was promoted to Captain.
Brave guy.

By John on Tuesday, May 18, 2004 - 04:23 pm:

It actually was reported by the Associated Press on May 7. Here is the article:


Marine honored for bravery in Iraq fighting

Friday May 07, 2004
ROCHESTER, N.Y. (AP) A 29-year-old Marine from upstate New York received the Navy's second highest award Thursday for charging into enemy trenches during an ambush in Iraq and continuing his attack after depleting his ammunition.

Marine Capt. Brian R. Chontosh of Rochester, N.Y., received the Navy Cross Medal in a ceremony at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Training Center, Twentynine Palms, Calif. The Navy Cross is second only to the Congressional Medal of Honor.

``I was just doing my job,'' said Chontosh, who is married and expecting his first child. ``I did the same thing every other Marine would have done.''

On March 25, 2003, five days into the war, Chontosh led his platoon toward Ad Diwaniyah when the troops came under an ambush of enemy mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons, according to Marine officials.

Chontosh directed his driver into a hail of machine gun fire. His machine gunner returned fire.

Then Chontosh ordered the driver into the enemy trench, where he left the vehicle and depleted the ammunition in his service rifle and pistol. He twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his attack, finally firing an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher.

In the end, Chontosh killed more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounded several others.

``We're very excited and very proud, obviously very proud of all the young men and women over there and everybody over there,'' said his father, Rick Chontosh, who flew to San Diego with his wife to attend the ceremony.

Brian Chontosh served with the Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force based in Twentynine Palms.

More than 6,000 soldiers have been awarded Navy Cross Medals since World War I.


(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)