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COURAGE
American Digest ^ | May 11, 2004 | Vanderleun

Posted on 05/11/2004 10:24:30 AM PDT by vanderleun

ChontoshLR.jpg

WITH THE NATION’S FAUX INTELLIGENTSIA still reeling from “shame-shock-horror,” and the Hounds of the Blathervilles in full cry for Donald Rumsfeld's head on a pike, the likelihood of the picture above being seen on the front pages of the "leading" newspapers, or at the top of the news on any of the network news shows approaches absolute zero. After all, just what is the story here? Why should it be of interest to the Americans these “news organizations” supposedly serve?

The story concerns a medal given to a Marine: Marine receives Navy Cross. The marine in question is Capt. Brian R. Chontosh. “Chontosh” -- an unusual name, one that should be easy to search. But go to Google News and search for “Chontosh.” The hits are meager to say the least. As of this writing, there are eleven. To put this in perspective, a search for “Kerry Medals” returns 1,680 references from Google News while “Iraq Prisons” is a bonanza of reports and commentary -- 8, 660 to be precise. With such an overwhelming glut of news why should any news organization feature a story about the Navy Cross being given to a Marine? What’s that story got, anyway?

The story is this:

Chontosh, 29, from Rochester, N.Y. , received the naval service's second highest award 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.

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 advanced 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.
Try to imagine, for only a moment, what those actions entail. Try to put yourself, if for only a moment, on the ground and in the boots of Capt. Chontosh. Try to envision what it is to walk down a trench filled with people whose only mission is to kill you. They number more than 20. You are one. They are all armed. You have one rifle and one pistol. When you run out of ammunition, you have to take up the arms of the enemy. You don’t know if they are loaded or to what extent. But you keep going. In time, after you have killed 20 soldiers and wounded others, the shooting finally stops. Somehow, you are still alive. Somehow, your comrades are still alive. For now.

Could you walk down that trench? I couldn’t. I know all the usual answers: training, duty, responsibility to the men under your command. None of them really answer the question, do they? Call it courage and hold your manhood cheap if you cannot begin to match it.

But you heard nothing about it, did you? You heard, instead, about the sadists until you couldn’t stand to hear any more and then you heard more. You heard about the man from an ancient war who did or did not toss medals away until you couldn’t care about it less and then you heard more.

If you were unfortunate enough to read the words of George Will, professional spinster, this morning, you read his handy guide to S&M:

Americans must not flinch from absorbing the photographs of what some Americans did in that prison. And they should not flinch from this fact: That pornography is, almost inevitably, part of what empire looks like. It does not always look like that, and does not only look like that. But empire is always about domination. Domination for self-defense, perhaps. Domination for the good of the dominated, arguably. But domination.
--No Flinching From the Facts (washingtonpost.com)
That’s what the Washington Post brought you this morning. Why? Because you haven’t had your nose rubbed in this enough yet. How does George Will and the Washington Post know this? Because it would seem that, as of this morning, Donald Rumsfeld still has his job. That’s what is important to the writers and editors of the Post and the other “leading” news organizations today. The prison story with its tops and bottoms and naked images that can be run in the paper with a little discrete blurring here and there is important to these organizations because it is something they can understand. It’s permissible porn and they like it, they really, really like it. Indeed, it would seem that George Will likes it a little too much.

Courage, though, real physical courage that requires a man to put the lives of his comrades above his own life, is beyond the shrunken moral scope of those who’ve spent the last week grinding out every last drop of rancid, phony outrage out of the Iraq Prison centerfolds they been displaying. Outrage and shock may have been permissible and even correct at the outset of the incident, but now doesn’t it seem as if there’s an element of perverse enjoyment creeping into the whole thing?

I began this comment thinking that it was an outrage that a report on the heroism of Capt. Brian R. Chontosh wasn’t deemed worthy of comment by the “leaders” of the “leading news organizations” of the United States.

I’ve changed my mind.

It is they who are not worthy of him.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: abuse; brianchontosh; brianrchontosh; chontosh; courage; donaldrumsfeld; georgewill; goodnews; hero; heroism; iraq; johneffinkerry; johnfkerry; johnkerry; marine; medal; medals; mediabias; navycross; prisonerabuse; remsfeld; washingtonpost
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To: metesky
Thanks for the ping.

I wish there were a way to give this a permanent BTTT.

41 posted on 05/11/2004 1:24:29 PM PDT by Madame Dufarge
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Comment #42 Removed by Moderator

To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
God bless the brave marine, Capt. Brian R. Chontosh. And all of our military men and women.
43 posted on 05/11/2004 2:10:32 PM PDT by ride the whirlwind (And we will defend the peace that makes all progress possible. - George W. Bush)
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To: Darksheare
I hadn't thought of Toby's song in that context before. Thanks for putting that image in my head. I like it.

Do you still think I'm crazy, standing here alone?.

44 posted on 05/11/2004 2:54:15 PM PDT by BykrBayb (5 minutes of prayer for Terri, every day at 11 am EDT, until she's safe. http://www.terrisfight.org)
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To: BykrBayb
LOL!
Naaah.
You're not crazy.
And, I personally love the thought of that siong in that context.
Though I suppose the terror-boys would be somewhat mystified by it.
;-)

Welcome.
45 posted on 05/11/2004 3:03:37 PM PDT by Darksheare (I am Darksheare, I find weird threads!)
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
Thanks for the ping. I needed to read something like this. Sometimes I wonder if our average soldiers (who are btw the best in the world) have any idea what they do for our morale. Even when they're not doing things as exraordinary as this, it's uplifting just to watch them work.
46 posted on 05/11/2004 3:04:03 PM PDT by BykrBayb (5 minutes of prayer for Terri, every day at 11 am EDT, until she's safe. http://www.terrisfight.org)
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To: HiJinx
Thanks for the ping, HiJinx. I think you're right!
47 posted on 05/11/2004 4:15:16 PM PDT by TEXOKIE (The Will of God is Good! Not my will, not my will, not my will, but Thine be done!)
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To: vanderleun; HiJinx; All
This is an official Prayer Warrior Field Trip Destination!

For those who wish to support our troops spiritually with other FReepers, please feel invited and welcome to come to the Troop Prayer Threads. Lurkers are welcome!

http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1101474/posts?page=570

48 posted on 05/11/2004 4:33:21 PM PDT by TEXOKIE (The Will of God is Good! Not my will, not my will, not my will, but Thine be done!)
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To: vanderleun
I get news from a retired Marine PAO..read this a few days ago and was so stoked! Passed it on to everyone in my addy book!
Semper Fi!
49 posted on 05/11/2004 4:55:04 PM PDT by celtic gal (when it absoutely must be destroyed call 911 MARINES)
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To: vanderleun
Our Fore Fathers could never have imagined that liberals ( critters not yet evolved in their time)would one day cause PRESS, as in free press, in only a couple of centries, to be interpreted as:

P-punks
R-resonating
E-enemy
S-sob
S-stories

This ain't our fore father's press.
50 posted on 05/11/2004 4:55:28 PM PDT by F.J. Mitchell (Republicans who die between now and 2 Nov. will be voting for Kerry. Stay healthy!)
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To: vanderleun
Capt. Brian R. Chontosh got some more exposure today.
His story got read on The Hugh Hewitt Show today (www.hughhewitt.com).
So, his tale has been broadcast on a major Los Angeles radio station, Hewitt's affiliate
stations and live on the net.
51 posted on 05/11/2004 4:58:30 PM PDT by VOA
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To: Bahbah
That is one fine looking Marine.

Ummmmmmm....yes, yes he is...he should be a Freeper; we should try very, very, very hard to get him signed up. Yes... yes, we should that...

Just like "Ceegar Guy" belongs here....ummmmm, yes, just like "Ceegar Guy..." <8^)
52 posted on 05/11/2004 5:05:54 PM PDT by hummingbird ("If it wasn't for the insomnia, I could have gotten some sleep!")
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To: hummingbird
You are on to something here, hehehe.
53 posted on 05/11/2004 5:06:54 PM PDT by Bahbah
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To: Bahbah
Fine looking...and courageous! "Hehehe" back atcha!
54 posted on 05/11/2004 5:12:32 PM PDT by hummingbird ("If it wasn't for the insomnia, I could have gotten some sleep!")
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To: Bahbah
Outstanding!
Semper Fi MARINE!
In the best tradition of the Marine Corps!
55 posted on 05/11/2004 5:17:47 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: PoorMuttly
War.

War it is, it's time to give them the antidote.

The problem of the liberals is that they have come to believe there is nothing worth going to war FOR.
The problem of the liberals is that they have forgotten
HOW to war.

We don't have those problems.
The problem we have is liberals.
56 posted on 05/11/2004 5:24:00 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: LindaSOG
He is carrying on a long and proud tradition of the fighting men of this country. If you will look back over all the wars we've engaged in where accurate records are kept, you'll find many examples of this selfless valor.

The question was posed in the article about "could you walk down this trench with 20 enemy set on killing you and do what he did?" I can answer that with a firm yes! If it comes down to me or them, I will walk away. And if I have any brothers in arms with me, the result is the same - WE will walk away and they will have to be carried off the field.

57 posted on 05/11/2004 7:11:48 PM PDT by Colt .45 ( Veteran - Pride in my Southern Ancestry! Falsum etiam est verum quod constituit superior.)
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
Our Troops bump.
58 posted on 05/11/2004 9:31:51 PM PDT by fatima (My Granddaughter Karen is Home-WOOHOO We unite with all our troops and send our love-)
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To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
Awesome story!
59 posted on 05/11/2004 10:44:56 PM PDT by windchime (Podesta about Bush: "He's got four years to try to undo all the stuff we've done." (TIME-1/22/01))
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To: vanderleun; glock rocks
This is great!

I'm just really glad He is on Our side.
60 posted on 05/12/2004 3:20:22 AM PDT by ChefKeith (NASCAR...everything else is just a game!)
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