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Medal of Honor Designee Praises Fellow Servicemembers
(September 19, 2010) | 
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U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta got a call,
Sept. 9, 2010, from President Barack Obama, letting him know he would soon
receive the Medal of Honor due to the efforts he made in Afghanistan to save
the lives of fellow soldiers, even though doing so put his own life in the
balance.
U.S. Army photo
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WASHINGTON, Sept. 15, 2010 – A soldier designated to receive the Medal of Honor
downplayed the notion that he is a hero today, insisting that his fellow
servicemembers also deserve to be described that way.
“If I'm a hero, every man that stands around me, every woman in the military,
everyone who goes into the unknown is a hero,” Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta
said. “So if you think that that's a hero, ... you include everyone with me.”
He and his wife, Jenny, both Iowa natives, spoke from Vicenza, Italy, to
Pentagon reporters during a video news conference.
Giunta, 25, learned during a Sept. 9 phone call from President Barack Obama that
he will become the first living servicemember to receive the Medal of Honor for
actions during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
Then a 22-year-old specialist serving as a rifle team leader with the 173rd
Airborne Brigade Combat Team's |
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Company B, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, Giunta earned the
nation's highest military honor for his heroism the night of Oct. 25, 2007,
when his squad encountered an insurgent ambush in Afghanistan's Korengal
Valley. |
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Giunta, who has been assigned to the same company for his entire military
career, said his platoon was in an overwatch position that day, which had
started “like any other day in Afghanistan.” The soldiers had struck their
equipment and were moving out to return to their outpost as night began to fall.
“[We] moved down the trail that we were by, that we sat at all day, probably 50
meters, maybe 100 meters, and that's when we were engaged in the L-shaped
ambush,” he said.
According to reports, when the insurgent ambush split Giunta's squad into two
groups, he exposed himself to enemy fire to pull a squad mate back to cover.
Later, while firing on the enemy and attempting to link up with the rest of his
squad, Giunta said he saw two insurgents carrying away a fellow soldier, Sgt.
Joshua C. Brennan.
Giunta recovered his fellow soldier, shooting and killing one enemy fighter and
wounding, then driving off, another. He then provided medical aid to his wounded
comrade while the rest of his squad caught up and provided security. Brennan,
22, from McFarland, Wis., died the next day during surgery. A medic, Spc. Hugh
Mendoza, 29, of Glendale, Ariz., also died.
Giunta said his intent during the ambush wasn't to be a hero.
“I was out of grenades ... and I had the forward momentum going,” he said. “I
didn't run up to do anything heroic or to save Brennan. Brennan, in my mind,
wasn't in trouble. I was just going to go up and I'm going to find Brennan, and
we're going to shoot together, because it's better to shoot with a buddy than to
be shooting alone.”
Giunta said he didn't do more that night than any other soldier would have done
in his place.
“This is what I've chosen to do with my life, ... and everyone else I'm with is in
the same boat,” he said. “All professionals, all conducting themselves as
professionals, so there wasn't a whole lot of thinking that any of us needed to
do. ... Everyone just kind of played their part, followed their leaders, and
conducted themselves how they were trained.”
For most of the three years since Korengal Valley, Giunta has been reluctant to
discuss events he clearly remembers with pain.
Today, facing cameras and speaking with reporters, he called the honor
bitter-sweet.
“It's such a huge, huge honor, and right now the 173rd is deployed. And they are
doing the same thing they did, everything that's asked of them in Afghanistan,
all over again. That's where a lot of my friends are right now. For me to fully
accept this, I have to have everyone who's been by me every time I needed them,
and that's really my brothers in arms.
“Some of them are out of the Army now, and some of them are in Afghanistan now ...
there are a lot of [other] people I'd just love to share this moment with, and
I'm just not going to have the opportunity, because they're no longer with us.
They gave everything for their country,” he said.
Giunta's parents, Steve and Rose Giunta, spoke to reporters about their son
during a Sept. 11 news conference from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Rose recounted the
day she spoke with her son on the phone after the ambush occurred.
“I said, ‘Can you tell me what has happened?' And he said ‘I can't, Mom, I'm not
ready to.' I was crying, looking out the window, [trying to] talk about
something beyond the questions that are going through my head,” she said. “We
stayed on the phone for probably 20 minutes, and then he had to go. But it was
very difficult, and I didn't learn anything that day -- just that two men had
died, and everyone had gotten hit.”
Jenny, 26, works at the post youth center, teaches yoga and takes online classes
to prepare for medical studies. She said she didn't know about the Korengal
Valley incident until the following day, but remembers the call from the
president a week ago.
“It was intense. It was exciting,” she said. “When the call came through I was
really, really proud. I always say I'm proud to be with him, I'm proud to be his
wife, and I'm proud of what he went through.”
Giunta is serving as part of the unit's rear detachment while the brigade is
again deployed to Afghanistan. His former squad leader, Staff Sgt. Erick
Gallardo, who was with him the night of the ambush, called him from Afghanistan
after the Medal of Honor award was announced, Guinta said.
“He just told me that he's there for me, and he's proud of me, and he's happy
for me, and this means a lot to the guys,” Giunta said. “And honestly, hearing
him say that to me, someone I look up to telling me this, it means a lot to me
-- especially that he can say that from the guys, too, that I think are the
heroes right now.
“They're out there fighting the enemies of the United States while I'm just
sitting here,” he added.
Six previous medals of honor have been awarded during the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan. They were awarded posthumously to one Marine Corps, two Navy and
three Army servicemembers. The president is scheduled to present the seventh
posthumous award to the family of Army Staff Sgt. Robert Miller in an Oct. 6
ceremony Oct. 6.
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By Karen Parrish
American Forces Press Service
Copyright 2010
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