Brian Chontosh
What is more outrageous than what Capt Brian Chontosh did on March
25, 2003 on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah while a platoon commander
with the Weapons Company, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st
Marine Division, 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, is that some of
you are hearing about this here for the first time.
At any other time in our nation's brilliant military history,
Brian Chontosh would not be serving in anonymity somewhere in a
state side duty position. Rather he would be telling his
story and selling war bonds, while Hollywood executives fought over
the honor of telling his story. Some may have recognized
Captain Chontosh from Greg Palkot's feature story on Fox News'
coverage of the November 2004 battle of Fallujah. There
Chontosh prowled the deadly streets with his rifle company,
crushing the terrorists who had -until then- laid siege to the
city.
However, Chontosh's first battlefield heroics occurred in his
first deployment to Iraq during the invasion and liberation of the
country. On March 25, 2003, then First Lieutenant Chontosh,
recognized his unit was caught in a "kill zone" on Highway One
leading to Ad Diwaniyah in the initial campaign to Baghdad during
Operation Iraqi Freedom. After punching his vehicle through a
breech, he was immediately taken under withering machine gun fire
from a crew served weapon in a trench. Chontosh plowed toward the
machine gunner, trusting his .50 caliber gunner to silence the
enemy, which was done almost immediately.
Chontosh then dismounted his vehicle and armed with only his M16A2
and a M9 pistol began to systematically clear the trench that his
vehicle was now inside. With a complete disregard for his own
personal safety, Chontosh twice picked up discarded enemy rifles
and continued his ferocious attack.
When one of his Marines following behind found an RPG, Chontosh
decided to personally use it to destroy another unlucky clump of
enemy soldiers thinking they could overpower the brazen
Marine. Essentially any Saddam loyalist in the way of Brian
Chontosh that day was extremely unlucky.
When his dedicated and bold personal attack had ended, he had
cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench and lying behind him
and at his feet were the remains of over 20 enemy fighters.
For these actions, Brian Chontosh was awarded the second highest
award given for combat valor, The Navy Cross. |
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