Life Won’t Be Same for MoH Recipient Staff Sgt. Giunta

Life Won’t Be Same for MoH Recipient Giunta
November 16, 2010
Stars and Stripes|by Leo Shane III

WASHINGTON -- Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta has made no attempt to hide just how uncomfortable he is with the attention and accolades surrounding the Medal of Honor that he’ll formally receive on Tuesday.

“I’m a regular line Soldier, so this is a new world, sitting out here under these lights in the field with these cameras pointed on us, talking with a little, secret earpiece,” he said during a Pentagon press conference in September, shortly after his name and story were made public. “It’s definitely interesting and exciting.”

It was also a preview of a new reality for Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient for actions in the current wars.

Watch it live: The Medal of Honor Ceremony will stream live online this afternoon.

He is no longer a regular line Soldier. He’s the first living active-duty servicemember to be awarded the nation’s highest honor for battlefield heroics since the Vietnam War, a role that automatically sets him apart from his peers.

“The minute that medal goes around your neck, your life changes,” said Doug Sterner, a military historian who runs the Home of Heroes website. “He now has a different role to serve.”

On Tuesday, Giunta will receive the medal at a White House ceremony. He’ll stand on stage before his family, fellow Soldiers and Defense Department leaders as President Obama describes the heroism the 25-year-old displayed on Oct. 25, 2007, when he challenged a pair of Taliban fighters at point-blank range to rescue a wounded comrade who was being dragged away. And then he’ll shake the president’s hand and receive his medal as dozens of photographers and video cameras record every second.

Army officials haven’t said what Giunta’s future responsibilities will entail, or whether he’ll be allowed to deploy again to Afghanistan with the 173rd Airborne Brigade. During his unit’s last rotation, he was kept behind as part of the rear detachment’s support mission.
Sterner said any future combat is unlikely.
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Life Won’t Be Same for MoH Recipient Giunta