The Soldiers You Never Hear About
They're not all prisoner-abusers, you know
By Kate O'Beirne
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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."
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."
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. |
