THE AMERICAN FIGHTING MAN
THE AMERICAN FIGHTING MAN—SOMEONE WHO REMINDS US DAILY OF WHAT’S SO SPECIAL ABOUT AMERICA
by
Ken Eliasberg
I never cease to be amazed at the uncommon decency of the common man—there is something noble about him (or her, as the case may be). And, nowhere is this nobility more manifest than in our young men and women who defend our shores or seek to defend others who, for various reasons, are not capable of defending themselves. We seldom hear of their good deeds, for the media is so opposed to this war that they cannot bring themselves to ever tell us of anything good that is happening - all that we hear is that this is the “wrong war, at the wrong time, in the wrong place,” followed by the current body count (which, I might note, is dramatically lower than that predicted by various of our “friends” on the Left). Please don’t misunderstand, losing one life is a tragedy, losing many of them is a catastrophe. However, this is war, and in war people get killed. By the way, as I intend to make abundantly clear in future columns, this is the right war, at the right time, in the right place. The fight in Iraq is the most intelligent and appropriate thing we have done in the Middle East in the last 60 years—the Iraqi invasion was long overdue.
Setting that aside for the moment, a friend, knowing of my love affair with America, in general, and our armed forces, in particular emailed me an inspiring story that I would like to share with you. It goes as follows:
“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 (now Captain) 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’ll read in Brian’s hometown newspaper is two paragraphs of nothing. 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 jerks 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.”
The email goes on to detail Captain Chontosh’s acts of extraordinary bravery, in the face of severe enemy fire. The Captain, then a Lieutenant, on being ambushed and under heavy fire, gave the order to his humvee drive to charge the enemy embattlement, successfully overran it, and he and his unit killed some 20 Iraqi insurgents. His cool head under fire had saved his unit and crushed the enemy. His story is reminiscent of that of Sergeant York in WWI and of Audie Murphy in WWII. It is a story of uncommon valor displayed by one of America’s finest.
His citation reads: “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 propoganda, 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 ot all right as long as men like Brian Chontosh wear our uniform.”
The preceding are only the highlights of the email—it comes with pictures and appropriate music all under the caption “This Will Make You Proud” —and it did, and it does. I commend it to your attention—at http://www.wtv-zone.com/Mary/THISWILLMAKE YOUPROUD.HTML
All we hear from the established media—and in spades from the Left—is the bad news of this war. And, as noted, war is not pretty. But this is a just war, and our troops are acquitting themselves admirably. We would do well to unite behind them.