MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy

US Marine Awarded the UK Distinguished Flying Cross

• Posted by Beth on March 23rd, 2007 filed in General, Iraq, Journalism, Support the Troops, The War, UK    

UPDATE: Bumped to the top; newer posts follow. Read this first.

Major William D. Chesarek Jr. received the UK’s Distinguished Flying Cross, awarded for “gallantry during active operations against the enemy” on Wednesday, presented by the Queen at Buckingham Palace.

LONDON — A U.S. Marine helicopter pilot who helped save a British marine’s life in Iraq was awarded the British Distinguished Flying Cross on Wednesday, the first time an American has received the honor since World War II.

In a Buckingham Palace ceremony in London, Queen Elizabeth II pinned the medal on U.S. Marine Maj. William D. Chesarek Jr. He has served as the weapons and tactics instructor with the British 847 Naval Air Squadron since 2005 as part of an exchange program between the two countries.

His actions during a deployment last year to the British area of operations in Iraq, centered in the southern city of Basra, were cited in receiving the prestigious award, roughly the equivalent of the American Silver Star.

The mission started late on the night of June 10, 2006, as Chesarek and his crew were preparing to support about 100 British marines from the 20 Armoured Brigade as they looked for an insurgent weapons cache in the city of Amarah.

He was piloting a Lynx AH47 helicopter, which usually supported each battle group of a few hundred British troops.

As the ground force prepared to leave Amarah after wrapping up the weapons search, one vehicle became disabled. And insurgents took advantage.

“It kind of delayed the process, and now it’s going from night to day,” Chesarek, 32, recalled. “They started taking more fire as well.”

While Chesarek and his men in the air tried to find the sources of insurgent attacks — he estimated it was the work of five to 10 groups of three to five men — civilians started emerging, making it more difficult for the helicopter to single out and fire back at the insurgents.

“Obviously that has a huge impact on everything the guys on the ground are doing, as far as trying to avoid anything with noncombatants, and trying to effectively engage insurgents,” Chesarek said.

As the summer sun got higher in the sky, attacks on the marooned ground forces increased, and one British marine was shot in the head. Chesarek and his crew landed and evacuated the casualty.

Chesarek also drew enemy fire away from the ground troops and called in other air support that helped disperse the insurgents.

As the chopper pulled away from the scene, a rocket-propelled grenade barely missed its tail.

Emphases mine. Go read the rest.

It’s pretty sad that the Washington Post filed this one under “Other News,” along with a story about a Belarussian rower accidentally rowing into Ukrainian waters and a story about an 81-year-old man who ran down a suspected shoplifter with his bike in the Netherlands. Two sentences on Page C11. And only eight other non-military news organizations carried by Google News carried the story, most using the five-sentence AP report. Shameful. Major Chesarek was honored appropriately by the Queen of England; why can’t America do the same? People like Chesarek who show valor in service should be featured prominently in the media because they are America’s best.

Yesterday when I posted the story about the 3d Armored Cavalry, Lance left a comment asking what he could do to try to counteract the “leftard moonbats & the traitorous MSM” (couldn’t have said it better myself). I think we all wish we knew the answer to that, but maybe we should start demanding the media recognize our heroes appropriately. They deserve as much, regardless of the media’s agenda. Instead, they focus solely on the worst, most outrageous, or most politically expedient figures in society; never the best and brightest. Blackfive has “Someone You Should Know,” but those “someones” ought to be presented to all Americans, not just the people who read Blackfive. So I suppose my suggestion to everyone would be to call or write an email to your local newspapers and/or local teevee news, asking them to consider making a feature of honoring America’s heroes. People need to know about the men and women who serve with distinction, not just the Abu Ghraib morons.

UPDATE: mRed at Invincible Armor noted the same thing, and is pissed off.

Let one terrorist insurgent get a hangnail and the media gets their shorts in a bunch and demands answers about how our soldiers became so vicious, mean and insufferable constitution and human rights bashers.

Anything negative is just fine and dandy with them. If it concerns our troops. Anything positive is only news if it is positive news about our enemies and their supporters here in America.

Damn right. We need to raise a shi’itestorm about how the media ignores this kind of news.

UPDATE 2: Blue Star Beth piles on, and adds this:

America still produces brave men and women. There are still honorable, decent, selfless and courageous men and women who are willing to do the thankless job of protecting and serving this country.

That means there is still hope.

And that’s what it’s all about. Not just hope for winning the war, but hope for America’s future. Isn’t that what everyone wants? Hold up these heroes in a place of honor, Big Media. Doing anything less is cynical and ugly. These men and women should be our childrens’ heroes, not Britney Spears or any other pop culture moron of the day, and not the angry squeaky wheels with the victim mentality. There’s nothing biased about celebrating honor, decency, selflessness, and courage. “Duty, honor, country” is not a partisan issue.