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Medal of Honor to be awarded to living soldier
2nd Afghanistan war MoH announced by White House this week
ARMY TIMES
Posted : Friday Sep 10, 2010 13:58:10 EDT

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta will be the first living Medal of Honor
recipient since the Vietnam War.

On Thursday, President Obama spoke with Giunta, who is assigned to
2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat
Team, in Vicenza, Italy, to inform him that he will be awarded the
nation's highest valor award, according to the White House.

Giunta, 25, will be honored for his actions during a fierce firefight
Oct. 25, 2007, in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley.

According to the White House announcement, when an insurgent force
ambush split 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, 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 defeat an enemy ambush and recover
a fellow American paratrooper from enemy hands, according to the
White House.

The Medal of Honor awarded to Giunta will be the eighth since the
beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The seventh, also for
actions in Afghanistan, was announced Thursday and will be awarded
posthumously to Staff Sgt. Robert J. Miller.

Miller, of 3rd Battalion, 3rd Special Forces Group of Fort Bragg,
N.C., will be honored for his actions on Jan. 25, 2008. Obama will
present the medal to Miller's parents during a ceremony Oct. 6 at the
White House.

The first six Medals of Honor awarded for the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan were posthumous awards, including four for acts of
heroism in Iraq and two in Afghanistan.

Details of the ceremony for Giunta have not been announced.

MORE ON GIUNTA:
A soldier who served in Afghanistan could be the first living
recipient of the Medal of Honor since the Vietnam War.

News outlets in and around Cedar Rapids, Iowa, have reported that
Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta, who is from that area, is believed to be the
soldier being considered for the nation's highest valor award. Giunta
is currently stationed in Vicenza, Italy.

The recommendation has been sent from the Defense Department to the
White House, according to an Army source, who confirmed that Giunta
is likely the nominee.

The Washington Post was the first to report the nomination, but did
not reveal the soldier's name.

A source close to the nomination said the soldier fought through a
barrage of fire to repel enemy fighters in a fierce battle in late
2007 in Afghanistan's treacherous Korengal Valley. His actions saved
the lives of several other soldiers.

The White House and the Army refused to comment on the nomination.
Efforts to reach Giunta and his family were unsuccessful.

The AP reported officials are concerned that early disclosure could
be seen as pressuring President Barack Obama to approve the medal,
creating a potentially embarrassing situation if the award is not
approved.

If approved, the award would be just the seventh Medal of Honor since
the beginning of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. All six prior
awards were posthumous, including four for acts of heroism in Iraq
and two in Afghanistan.

The small number awarded and the fact that all were awarded
posthumously has raised questions among members of Congress and
senior military leaders.

When asked by reporters, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in
September the issue has been "a source of real concern to me." He
added: The Medal of Honor nomination process is "a very
time-intensive, thorough process. But I would say that I've been told
there are some living potential recipients that have been put
forward," he said during a Sept. 17 news conference.

Military officials have said it's difficult to compare the number of
awards from previous conflicts to those for Iraq and Afghanistan
because warfare has evolved so much.

"The types of actions that we have in Iraq and Afghanistan, although
they can be brutally violent for short periods of time, they are not
the long duration, force-on-force type of battles that we fought in
the past," Army Chief of Staff Gen. George Casey said June 7 during a
meeting with Army Times editors and reporters. "That said, I think ...
you're going to continue to see awards for Medals of Honor and
Distinguished Service Crosses continue to process through, and I
would expect that some of those, especially for a living soldier,
would be favorably approved."

Giunta's heroic actions are chronicled in a new book titled "War," by
Sebastian Junger.

A specialist at the time, Giunta deployed with the 173rd Airborne
Brigade Combat Team for its June 2007 to August 2008 tour in
Afghanistan.

According to Junger's book, late on Oct. 25, 2007, Giunta and his
fellow soldiers from B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry
Regiment, were on their way back from a major operation when they are
ambushed by the enemy.

Giunta was the fourth soldier from the front; Sgt. Josh Brennan was
walking point, according to "War."

The enemy fired machine-gun and small-arms fire and rocket-propelled
grenades from such close range that the Apache attack helicopters
overhead were unable to help the soldiers on the ground.

"First Platoon is essentially inside a shooting gallery," Junger
wrote. "Within seconds, every man in the lead squad takes a bullet.
Brennan goes down immediately, wounded in eight places."

As the battle progressed, Giunta "sees two enemy fighters dragging
Josh Brennan down the hillside. He empties his M4 magazine at them
and starts running toward his friend," according to the book.

"Giunta jams a new magazine into his gun and yells for a medic.
Brennan is lying badly wounded in the open and Giunta grabs him by
the vest and drags him behind a little bit of cover."

Brennan doesn't survive surgery, Junger wrote.

Giunta later talks to Junger about his actions. "I did what I did
because that's what I was trained to do," he told Junger. "I didn't
run through fire to save a buddy - I ran through fire to see what was
going on with him and maybe we could hide behind the same rock and
shoot together. I didn't run through fire to do anything heroic or
brave. I did what I believe anyone would have done."