Based on the numbers alone, one would think there hasn’t been much heroism in Afghanistan or Iraq these many years. Until this week, the Department of Defense had awarded the Medal of Honor, the military’s highest honor for valor, only six times after nearly 10 years of the wars on terror—and all six were given posthumously to soldiers who died in combat.

 

That draught will soon end, following the White House announcement on Friday that Salvatore Giunta, a U.S. Army specialist from Hiawatha, Iowa, will become the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor for actions taken since the Vietnam War.

 

Giunta will be honored for his actions during an ambush in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley in Kunar province on October 25, 2007, when he gathered himself together after being knocked down by an enemy bullet and rushed into the firefight to aid three wounded soldiers, including one who had been captured by the Taliban. In April 2010 the U.S. retreated from the Korengal Valley after losing more than 40 American troops in five years.

 

With Giunta’s medal, along with another that the Defense Department plans to award posthumously to Staff Sergeant Robert Miller, the Medal of Honor total comes to eight recipients since 2001. By comparison, the Medal of Honor was awarded 246 times during the Vietnam conflict, 133 times for the Korean War and 464 for World War II.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Obama Awards Living Soldier the Medal Of Honor (by Craig Whitlock and Greg Jaffe, Washington Post)

Living Afghan War Vet to Receive Medal of Honor (by Leo Shane III and Megan McCloskey, Stars and Stripes)

Pentagon Considers First Medal of Honor for Living Soldier Since Vietnam War (by Noel Brinkerhoff and David Wallechinsky, AllGov)

No Survivors Have Earned Medal of Honor in Iraq or Afghanistan (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)