- Ask Americans to name some of our soldiers in Iraq and
chances are they'll readily identify Lynndie England, Charles Graner Jr.,
Jeremy Sivits, and Ivan "Chip" Frederick II. The three major
networks have run over 200 stories on the detainee-abuse scandal, making
the seven disgraced soldiers assigned to Abu Ghraib the most recognizable
faces of American service in Iraq. The media's line of attack against the
war is revealed in its selective coverage of our soldiers: All villains
and victims, no valor. Not one of the heroes decorated for bravery in Iraq
has received a minute of coverage from ABC, CBS, or NBC. National newspapers
have run hundreds of stories on the scandalous service of the Abu Ghraib
seven, but have made no mention of another seven whose stories of service
could be recounted with Steven Seagal cast in the lead.
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- In early May, Marine Captain Brian Chontosh, Marine Lance
Corporal Joseph Perez, and Marine Sergeant Marco Martinez were awarded
Navy Crosses for extraordinary heroism, an award second only to the Medal
of Honor. Army Sergeant Gerald Wolford, Army Sergeant Major Michael Stack,
Marine Staff Sergeant Adam Sikes, and Marine Corporal Armand McCormick
- and 123 others - have been awarded Silver Stars for outstanding valor
in combat. The stories of these courageous men represent the dedication
of the tens of thousands of soldiers serving bravely and honorably in Iraq
far better than the actions of a derelict nightshift in two isolated cell
blocks.
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- On March 25, 2003, then-Lieutenant Brian R. Chontosh,
29, of Rochester, N.Y., was leading his platoon on Highway 1 south of Baghdad
when his troops came under a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket-propelled
grenades, and automatic-weapons fire. With the road ahead blocked, Chontosh
realized his men were caught in a kill zone. He ordered his driver to advance
directly into the enemy trench. Chontosh leapt from his vehicle and began
firing with his rifle and pistol. But his ammunition ran out. "With
complete disregard for his safety," according to the citation, "he
twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack....
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."
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- After being awarded the Navy Cross, Captain Chontosh
said, "I was just doing my job, I did the same thing every other Marine
would have done, it was just a passion and love for my Marines." Two
of those Marines - Corporals Armand E. McCormick, 22, and Robert P. Kerman,
21 - received Silver Stars, the service's third-highest award, for their
"conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity" in pressing the assault
forward in that trench. Two days after the award ceremony at Camp Pendleton,
McCormick redeployed to Iraq.
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- During the First Marine Expeditionary Force's advance
to Baghdad, Lance Corporal Joseph B. Perez's platoon came under intense
fire. As point man for the lead squad he was its most exposed member. Perez,
23, returned fire continuously while also directing accurate fire from
his squad. He led a charge into a trench, killed the enemy combatants there,
and, under "tremendous" fire, threw a grenade into another trench.
Perez continued shooting with "precision rifle fire" and despite
serious gunshot wounds directed his squad to take cover and reorganize,
enabling them to defeat the enemy.
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- Then-Corporal Marco A. Martinez, 22, was coming to the
aid of an ambushed platoon during the battle of Al Tarmiya on April 12,
2003, when his squad leader was wounded and he took command of the assault
along the Tigris River. With his squad under fire from a nearby building,
and "enduring intense enemy fire and without regard for his own personal
safety," he launched a captured rocket-propelled grenade into the
building, allowing a wounded Marine to be evacuated. Martinez then single-handedly
assaulted the building and killed four enemy soldiers with a grenade and
his rifle. "I just wanted to take care of my squad. I didn't want
to quit on them," he later explained.
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- In the same battle, Staff Sergeant Adam R. Sikes, 27
- who had cancelled plans to attend Georgetown University "so he wouldn't
miss the war in Iraq" - was pinned down when the ambush struck but
rallied two of his squads to counterattack. "With the squads in position,
Staff Sergeant Sikes charged alone across 70 meters of fire-swept ground
to close on the first enemy strongpoint, which he cleared with a grenade
and rifle fire." Sikes then moved to the top of a three-story building
and, exposed to enemy fire, directed mortar rounds onto enemy positions.
Finally, he moved to a squad that had taken casualties and managed their
evacuation - again under fire. "So many people are pouring their hearts
out over there, trying to make things right," Sikes said at the award
ceremony.
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- Staff Sergeant Gerald A. Wolford of the 82nd Airborne
Division received the Silver Star for his actions during a four-hour battle
to secure three river crossings in As Samawah. Wolford placed his heavy-machine-gun
vehicle between the enemy and the dismounted infantrymen accompanying him.
When the vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade, he ordered his
crew to pull out while he remained to direct fire on the enemy position.
"For the remainder of the fight, SSG Wolford continually exposed himself
to enemy fire as he made efforts to aid others to withdraw."
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- Sergeant Major Michael B. Stack's Special Forces team
came under fire on April 11 when they were traveling from Baghdad to Al
Hillah. Providing rear security for the convoy, Stack, 48, immediately
began to fire so others could escape from the kill zone. He led a security
force to eliminate the remaining threat and allow for the evacuation of
casualties, and then prepared for a counterattack. But the enemy concentrated
fire on his vehicle and an explosion killed him instantly. The South Carolina
father of six - and grandfather of three - was awarded the Silver Star
posthumously. "We're doing the right thing," Stack had told his
older brother, retired from the Army.
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- The death of Corporal Pat Tillman (who had left the National
Football League) received plenty of press coverage, but the courage and
self-sacrifice that merited his posthumous Silver Star was little reported.
Tillman was a team leader in an Army Ranger platoon that was ambushed in
southeastern Afghanistan. He and his team members were safely out of the
area of attack when the tail section of their convoy became pinned down
in rough terrain. Tillman ordered his team to dismount and take the fight
up a hill toward enemy forces; it was there that he was killed. Once his
team had engaged the enemy, fire directed at the convoy's tail section
diminished and those soldiers escaped the ambush with no casualties.
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- Tillman's unit commander, Lieutenant David Uthlaut, was
seriously wounded in that attack. Uthlaut was First Captain of the Corps
of Cadets for his West Point class of 2001; Rhodes Scholarship material,
he chose to serve in Iraq. Twelve West Point graduates have been killed
to date in Iraq.
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- More than 3,700 Purple Hearts have been awarded to our
troops in Iraq. Private First Class Quintin D. Graves, 19, joined the Marine
Corps last July, and now wears two Purple Hearts. Calling his mother for
the second time in less than a month, "I tried to explain it wasn't
that bad," he said. "I couldn't lie and say I'm not around the
fighting. That lie doesn't work anymore." Marine Corporal Thomas W.
Kuster, a 28-year-old from California, has three Purple Hearts. Last year
he was wounded in Baghdad. "They got me once," he explained.
"I figured they weren't getting me again." But they did - during
street fighting in April, and then at a checkpoint outside Fallujah. A
bullet was removed from the back of his knee and he walks with a limp,
but he's back on duty. "My parents begged me to come home," Kuster
said. "But, I felt like if I was to go, I'd be turning my back on
my Marines."
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- The only American name most people recognize from the
fierce three-day battle at Mazar-e-Sharif is that of John Walker Lindh,
the Taliban kid from Marin County. While Lindh was disgracing himself,
Army Special Forces Major Mark Mitchell was earning the first Distinguished
Service Cross awarded since the Vietnam War. Vastly outnumbered, Mitchell
led 15 Special Forces troops and allied fighters to rescue a CIA agent,
recover Johnny "Mike" Spann's body, and prevent a Taliban takeover
of the fortress. During the fighting, Mitchell used the unwound turban
of an allied soldier to scale a 35-foot-high wall of the compound and then
directed air strikes from his exposed position. CIA director George Tenet
attended the ceremony last November recognizing Mitchell for "extraordinary
heroism in action."
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- The Ranger Creed that inspired the bravery of Pat Tillman
reads, in part: "Surrender is not a Ranger word. I will never leave
a fallen comrade to fall into the hands of the enemy and under no circumstances
will I ever embarrass my country." It's too bad the media will under
no circumstances tell the remarkable stories of these and other soldiers
and Marines, who bring great credit to themselves, their services, and
their country.
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- http://www.nationalreview.com/kob/kob200405280824.asp
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