REAL WORLD EVENT

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Addressing the country from the Oval Office, President Bush announces that Operation Iraqi Freedom has begun with a series of strikes by two F-117A warplanes supported by Navy EA-6B Prowlers and 40 ship-launched cruise missiles against "selected targets of military significance" in Iraq. Delta Force and other Special Forces units who have already entered Iraq have been working with CIA paramilitary teams to target what they believe is a bunker complex in Baghdad housing Saddam Hussein. Later, they will learn that the attack was unsuccessful.

Coalition forces unleash artillery barrages against Iraqi targets as U.S. and British ground units, including the Army's 3rd Infantry Division and the 7th Armored Calvary, move toward the Iraqi border. British and American Marines capture the Umm Qasr seaport, 30 miles south of Basra, late in the day. 15,000 Marines from the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force close in on 51st Mechanized Division and break it.

U.S. Special Forces take two airfields, called H-2 and H-3, in western Iraq. By now, the 3rd Infantry Division has driven 100 miles into the country.

The 3rd Infantry Division crushes Iraqi forces outside the city of Najaf.

The 3rd Infantry Division, along with the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, drives to within 50 miles of Baghdad and hit Republican Guard divisions.

Heavy sandstorms sweep in from Sudan over the Red Sea to Saudi Arabia and Iraq. Visibility is cut to 1,500 feet, and the U.S. drive toward Baghdad slows as air support becomes impossible.

Meanwhile, then-Lt. Brian Chontosh leads a weapons company in the 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, of the 1st MEF, on a drive north on Highway 1 toward the town of Ad Diwaniyah when he runs into trouble.

A group of entrenched Iraqi fighters, most likely Fedayeen, hits Chontosh's platoon with a salvo of mortars, RPG's, and automatic fire. Blocked in by the tanks caught in front of his vehicles, he realizes he will be cut down if he doesn't act quickly.

Chontosh orders his driver, Cpl. Armand McCormick, to steer the HMMWV through a hole in his column. They take fire from an entrenched machine gun by the side of the road. Chontosh orders McCormick to drive straight toward the enemy, and the gunner of their HMMWV blasts it with the vehicle's .50-caliber weapon.

McCormick crashes the HMMWV into the trench filled with Iraqis, and Lt. Chontosh, Cpl. McCormick, and Cpl. Robert Kerman leap out, killing the enemy with bursts from their M16A2 rifles and 9 millimeter pistols.

Though the Iraqis are raining shots on them, the men press forward, calmly clearing the trench of enemy, while McCormick scavenges dropped enemy AK-47's so they can keep shooting. Then McCormick finds an RPG launcher and hands it to Chontosh, who uses it to destroy another group of soldiers. By the time the dust clears, they have killed more than 20 Iraqis and cleared more than 600 feet of the enemy's trench.

Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Michael W. Hagee presides over a ceremony at Camp Pendleton, in which Capt. Brian Chontosh is awarded the Navy Cross, and Cpls. McCormick and Kerman each receive a Silver Star. Pfc. Joseph B. Perez also receives the Navy Cross for his actions in a gun battle a few days after their encounter. Cpl. Thomas Franklin is also given the Navy Commendation Medal with a "V" for Valor.

Two days after the award ceremony, McCormick redeploys to Iraq.