Medal of Honor

The Medal of Honor is a big deal. You hear about it all the time, but its actually a bit of a controversy. It hasn't been given out much in the past few scenes of war, due to the drop in "in-close" combat and - allegedly - increasing bureaucratic process.

However, today marks the first time a Medal of Honor has been awarded to a living recipient since the Vietnam War. And he's from Iowa.

Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta's actions are nothing short of action-movie caliber. Here's the official account. I'll break it down for you layman's style here:

Bunch of soldiers traveling down a road. A dozen taliban fighters spring an ambush - an "L" shaped ambushed, designed to separate a team off from the squad, and the squad off from the platoon. Its designed to kill everyone in a small area, then run. So there's 12 taliban fighters shooting rockets and machine guns at just his team.... from 20 FEET AWAY. So, imagine that.

Everyone in platoon is hit - even the medic is killed. The point man is Giunta's best friend, Sgt Josh Brennan. He's hit eight times. Eight. Giunta is 4th man back. The guy in front of him is hit 4 times. Giunta takes one round to his flak jacket, and another off his weapon strapped to his back. Its fucking RAINING automatic weapons fire. From 20 ft away, remember.

Giunta sees that his friend, Sgt. Brennan, is being drug away by two talibani fighters to who knows where. Nowhere good. Giunta leaves cover, runs into the effing middle of this, shoots one of the talibani and wounds the other who drops his team leader (and friend) and runs away. Giunta grabs Brennan by the body armor and drags him back to cover and starts administering aid.

Brennan eventually died of his wounds the next day, but Giunta's actions meant that the taliban were denied a possible ransom or execution, and Brennan's parents were able to have a proper burial for their son.

I heard Giunta's interview on NPR coming to work yesterday. He was asked if he was a "good soldier." He responded that he felt that he was "average. I'm mediocre." He didn't sound like the stereotypical heavy brooding soldier type. He sounded like a completely normal person. Thrust into a warzone. While he may not see himself as exceptional - this story is a tiny microcosm of the people serving our country. Normal people being asked to do extra-ordinary things on a daily basis. Shit like this happens so often that its just another day's work to them. Its a great image of how people rise to the occasion to do whatever it is than needs done.

Its a little late for veteran's day - but here's my contribution: Giunta (and others like you) - you should know that you're anything but average.