First Medal of Honor for a living Afghan war vet

[NJmaverick]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama will award the first Medal of Honor to go to a living service member who fought in the wars in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta served as a rifle team leader during combat operations in Afghanistan's Korengal Valley. The White House says Giunta went beyond the call of duty during an October 2007 attack when he exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a comrade back to cover. When he later noticed two insurgents carrying away another fellow solider, Giunta engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other before providing medical aid to the wounded U.S. soldier.
Obama spoke with Giunta Thursday to inform him he would receive the nation's highest military honor.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obama_medal_of_honor/print

[Renew Deal]

1. Sounds he like earned it!

Hey Guinta :yourock:

[TwilightGardener]

2. Excellent work, Sgt. Giunta.

:patriot:

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. Seriously? The first one in 9 years?

From the way it is phrased, Bush did make posthumous awards, but none to living heroes.

Of course, dead heroes can't show up in the papers bad-talking the war.

Congratulations, Sarge. I'm sure you deserve it, even if you're not the only one.

[zipplewrath]

5. Unfortunately quite common

"Since the beginning of World War II, 855 Medals of Honor have been awarded, 529 posthumously"

A very common way to receive this award is posthumously, unfortunately.

[joshcryer]

6. First one in almost 40 years according to Wikipedia

As the other poster said... extremely rare to get a living Medal of Honor.

This was the last person to receive a Medal of Honor non-posthumously: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_E._Thornton

[Posteritatis]

14. It's pretty hard to survive MoH acts these days

As someone else said, most of them are posthumous.

It's similar with Victoria Crosses; about ninety percent of those are posthumous.

[bushisanidiot]

4. Well done, Mr. President. Too bad your predecessor didn't care enough to do the same.

.

[backtomn]

8. The President does NOT determine who gets the award....

He is only told who will receive it. That is why the military generally says that the Medal of Honor is "earned" not "awarded". I don't believe that the President "does" anything, other than the ceremony. It should be not political......and this man obviously earned it......and I am happy that he is alive to have the President hand it to him.

[bushisanidiot]

9. President Obama has done FAR MORE to support our troops than AWOL Bush ever did.

.

[old mark]

12. The president decides if he will award it personally - he decided to do so, and he spoke

with SSG Giunta Thursday.

FWIW, Giunta denies he did anything special, states he is a "mediocre" soldier in his unit.


mark

[Arctic Dave]

7. In the end, I think all the Iraqis and Afghans should get one.

[judesedit]

11. Agreed. For what they've endured in their own countries and what they endure here through prejudice

And... the truth about 9/11 has not yet been revealed. They have been a scapegoat for the truly treacherous.

[The abyss]

13. Self delete

[judesedit]

10. Now...please help the soldier diagnosed with a TBI get his/her rightful award - the purple heart

This country commanded these young people to go to an unnatural terrain, uncivilized in many parts, enduring extremely harsh conditions to try to rid the world of finatical terrorists who endanger EVERYONE'S lives in all countries...yet, even when they have been diagnosed with "traumatic" brain injuries from bomb blasts and explosions, this country has been denying many the puple heart, the highest honor a combat soldier can receive for his sacrifices. The brain doesn't heal for many years and will probably NEVER return to its former state. And the mind after living and experiencing hell will NEVER be the same. All innocence is gone forever. Give these soldiers who have seen, heard, felt and tasted the most horrendous unconventional warfare, often to disbelief and denial, who will probably relive their experiences in dreams far into the future, their rightful due...the purple heart. Concussion is one of the conditions written into the Army Manual for receipt of this medal. GIVE IT TO THEM...and any in previous wars diagnosed with severe brain injuries, also!

[Posteritatis]

15. Definitely agreed there

Considering as far back as WWI people were recognizing shell shock as a legitimate "wound," it sort of bugs me that a far less ambiguous and far more physical sort of injury isn't being recognized in the present.

[Poll_Blind]

16. Up until a few years ago I had no idea just how big a deal the MoH was.

I didn't understand exactly what types of things a soldier would have done in order to be recognized for a Medal of Honor.

And then I began reading the citations for those awarded the Medal of Honor, which explain exactly what they did which brought them into consideration for the military honor. If anyone reading this is not familiar with why the MoH is, really, a big fucking deal, consider perusing the citations here.

In a nutshell: If you saw a movie where a soldier did what most if not all of these MoH recipients had done, you would think it absurd. It would just not be believable for a single human being to accomplish. After reading a few of the citations for previous "winners" of the award, I think you would agree.

And for the soldier involved to have actually survived the ordeal is very uncommon if not rare. Again, you really should look over those citations if you get a chance.

I don't think anyone who has ever been awarded the MoH ever considered themselves actually worthy of winning it and I doubt any of those presented with it would hesitate a moment to trade it to bring back the lives of the dozens or hundreds of fellow soldiers who died during the circumstances under which it was earned.

The MoH is a reminder that among our soldiers are some of the most selfless, dedicated men and women one can possibly imagine. And why we should not waste the lives of those men and women on meaningless, unjust wars.

PB