Wed 9/22/2010
Medal of Honor Recipient, Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta, a Paragon of Humility
After reading the exploits of Giunta's Medal of Honor Commendation, and hear him describe himself as average and mediocre, it makes you proud, very very proud to be an Italian American.
Medal of Honor
In October 2007, Giunta's eight-man squad was moving along a wooded ridgeline in the Korangal valley when at least a dozen Taliban fighters mounted an ambush that was coordinated from three sides at such close range that close air support could not be provided to Giunta's unit. Sergeant Josh Brennan, who was walking point, suffered at least 6 gunshot wounds. Giunta, then a specialist, was the fourth soldier back and was shot in the chest but was saved by his ballistic vest. Another bullet destroyed a weapon slung over his back.Moving, firing and throwing hand grenades, Giunta advanced up the trail to assist Staff Sergeant Erick Gallardo and, later, Specialist Franklin Eckrode, whose M249 machine gun had jammed and who was badly wounded. Continuing up the trail, Giunta saw two Taliban fighters, one of whom was Mohammad Tali (considered a high-value target), dragging Brennan down the hillside and towards the forest. Giunta attacked the insurgents with his M4 carbine, killing Tali,and ran to Brennan to provide cover and comfort until relief arrived.
I ran through fire to see what was going on with him and maybe we could hide behind the same rock and shoot together ... He was still conscious. He was breathing. He was asking for morphine. I said, "You'll get out and tell your hero stories," and he was like, "I will, I will."
Brennan did not survive surgery.According to his father, Michael Brennan, "not only did [Giunta] save [my son] Josh ... He really saved half of the platoon."
On September 10, 2010, the White House announced that Giunta would receive the United States' highest military decoration, the first awarded to a living recipient since the Vietnam War He is the fourth recipient from the War in Afghanistan, after Navy Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, Army Sergeant First Class Jared C. Monti, and Army Staff Sergeant Robert James Miller.
White House action account
Then-Specialist Salvatore A. Giunta
distinguished himself by acts of gallantry at the risk of his life above
and beyond the call of duty while serving as a rifle team leader with Company
B, 2d Battalion (Airborne), 503d Infantry Regiment during combat operations
against an armed enemy in the Korengal Valley, Afghanistan on October 25,
2007. When an insurgent force ambush split Specialist Giunta's squad into
two groups, he exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a comrade back to
cover. Later, while engaging the enemy and attempting to link up with the
rest of his squad, Specialist Giunta noticed two insurgents carrying away
a fellow soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding
the other, and provided medical aid to his wounded comrade while the rest
of his squad caught up and provided security. His courage and leadership
while under extreme enemy fire were integral to his platoon's ability to
defeat an enemy ambush and recover a fellow American paratrooper from enemy
hands.
AMERICAN HERO: Just Doing My Job, Sir
Detroit Free Press; September 19, 2010
The first living Medal of Honor recipient
in a generation said last week that he was just trying to complete the
mission.
"In this job, I'm mediocre. I'm average," Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta said during a Pentagon-arranged link with reporters. Giunta spoke from Vicenza, Italy, where he is assigned to the Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade.
On Oct. 25, 2007, Giunta was a team leader wrapping up a mission in the rugged Korengal Valley in Afghanistan's Kunar province when his platoon came under fire.
A round slammed into his bulletproof chest plate, but he quickly regained his footing and ran into the gunfire and helped pull three wounded soldiers to safety.
"It's all kind of blurry," he said. "There wasn't a whole lot of thinking I needed to do. Looking at it like a picture, I'm just another brushstroke in the picture."
From Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Giunta enlisted in November 2003 and has deployed twice to Afghanistan, once in March 2005 and later in May 2007.
http://www.freep.com/article/20100919/NEWS07/
9190513/AMERICAN-HERO-Just-doing-my-job-sir
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