Staff Sergeant Salvator Giunta received a call from President Obama Thursday, Sept. 9, notifying him that he is to receive the Medal of Honor for his service.
According to the White House, then-Specialist Salvator Giunta’s squad was split by an insurgent ambush while confronting armed forces in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan on October 25, 2007. Giunta returned alone to a Taliban-secured area, putting himself in the line of fire to pull a fellow soldier back to cover.
During the same efforts, Giunta again entered enemy lines when he saw a wounded U.S. paratrooper from his group being carried away by two Taliban fighters. He engaged the two insurgents and rescued his company member.
“It was one of the worst days of my life, and when I revisit it, it kind of guts me a little bit more every time,” Giunta, now Staff Sergeant, said on Friday, according to the New York Times.
The service award is given for “great personal bravery or self-sacrifice,” according to a White House press release. Giunta is one of very few Medal of Honor winners to receive a phone call from a U.S. President in the past 40 years because most recipients are awarded posthumously.
Some receive the blue-ribboned medal many years after their extreme acts of self-sacrifice. The next Medal of Honor will be presented posthumously to Air Force’s Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger in September. Etchberger sacrificed his life to save three injured fellow soldiers in Laos in 1968, during the war against communism in that region.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat issued by the U.S. to the members of the Armed Services. According to the National Medal of Honor Society, over 3,400 Medals of Honor have been awarded since the award’s inception in 1861.
Fortunately, Giunta will be able to receive his medal in person. The date and time of the ceremony will be released by the U.S. government at a later date.
According to the White House, then-Specialist Salvator Giunta’s squad was split by an insurgent ambush while confronting armed forces in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan on October 25, 2007. Giunta returned alone to a Taliban-secured area, putting himself in the line of fire to pull a fellow soldier back to cover.
During the same efforts, Giunta again entered enemy lines when he saw a wounded U.S. paratrooper from his group being carried away by two Taliban fighters. He engaged the two insurgents and rescued his company member.
“It was one of the worst days of my life, and when I revisit it, it kind of guts me a little bit more every time,” Giunta, now Staff Sergeant, said on Friday, according to the New York Times.
The service award is given for “great personal bravery or self-sacrifice,” according to a White House press release. Giunta is one of very few Medal of Honor winners to receive a phone call from a U.S. President in the past 40 years because most recipients are awarded posthumously.
Some receive the blue-ribboned medal many years after their extreme acts of self-sacrifice. The next Medal of Honor will be presented posthumously to Air Force’s Chief Master Sergeant Richard Etchberger in September. Etchberger sacrificed his life to save three injured fellow soldiers in Laos in 1968, during the war against communism in that region.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat issued by the U.S. to the members of the Armed Services. According to the National Medal of Honor Society, over 3,400 Medals of Honor have been awarded since the award’s inception in 1861.
Fortunately, Giunta will be able to receive his medal in person. The date and time of the ceremony will be released by the U.S. government at a later date.
