ROS sent us this link, and Blackfive and Dave In Texas have both written about SSG Sal Giunta the first living Medal of Honor recipient of the war against terror.
I try to stay away from blog posts that most of the world has already commented upon if I don’t have anything to add, but I will say this; I’m so humbled and honored to watch the younger generation of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen carry the guidion into the future with such selfless courage. I’m proud just to be alive during their time.
A mutual friend of ours was in his unit, Jonn. This hits damn close to home, and I couldn’t be prouder either.
Oh, didn’t see you’d posted this already before I re-mailed the link. Great news though.
Stated,
“…I’m so humbled and honored to watch the younger generation of soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen carry the guidion into the future with such selfless courage…”
I can truely relate to the above statement.I am a Vietnam Veteran (11th ACR-1969). Upon returning to Iraq (124th Cav, 36th ID, TXARNG-2004) from R&R, I was lying on the floor awaiting my flight when a whole plane load of young Troopers came into the terminal. The sight of them was so emotional that my eyes welled up with tears.
This happened once before while in Iraq. One early morning while preparing to go out on an Area Security Mission, my gear already loaded, I sat on my cot watching the young Troopers going in and out of the tent loading their gear, ammo, and mounting the 50 Cal.
The unselfishness of these young Troopers and many of them multiple times, words cannot explain. Sorry to have gone off on a tangent but the above statement hit one of my deepest heartstrings.
I have mixed feeling of a sort. Mind you my misgivings have no/zero/nil with the award in any way.
It’s that it took TWO administrations to make it happen! The back-story troubles me rather a lot.
And Jonn… The back-story IS new stuff. Why now?
What’s amazing is how humble SSG Giunta is.
I was reading an article about him recently, and he was trying to make it sound as if what he did to save that soldier from the two taliban was something “routine,” kind of like he wanted to just check up on him and see if they could both get cover from fire.
In reality what he did was above and beyond and extraordinarily brave and heroic. Not only did he save that soldier from the two taliban, at great risk to himself, but he prevented the enemy from using him as hostage or worse for propaganda purposes (and thus saving the soldier’s family from any future heartache).
My hats off to this hero and I would love to see more of him in the American media. We surely need more true heroes to look up to.