The Medal of Honor

[fatnhappy]

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta will be awarded the Medal of Honor for action in Afghanistan. He is the first living recipient to be award the Medal of Honor for actions in central Asia.

hooah

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39103540/ns/us_news-life/

[Johnch]

I read about this guy a few days back

IMO he has the right stuff
I would like to shake his hand and buy him a drink

Wish we had more guys like him in uniform

John

[bruce drake]

John,

There are a lot of men and women like him in the services.

7 others have been recognized for their bravery in the recent wars with the MOH as well. He's the only one lucky enough to have survived his wounds.

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta is a modest man who credits the other members of his team as well.

Bruce

[cajun shooter]

The number of men who deserve the medal is much higher than those who receive it. They also receive it after death.

[DCP]

He mentions every other soldier would have done the same thing. It kind of rocks his world that he's being awarded the Medal of Honor for something each and every one of them would have done. He's very aware of that."

:drinks:

[bhn22]

The man deserves it, and I admire his bravery.

It is ironic that the Medal of Honor will be presented by a President who has no concept of honor.

[nicholst55]

The man deserves it, and I admire his bravery.

It is ironic that the Medal of Honor will be presented by a President who has no concept of honor.

+1. Obama shouldn't be eligible to present it.

[DCP]

The man deserves it, and I admire his bravery.

It is ironic that the Medal of Honor will be presented by a President who has no concept of honor.


Well he was from Chicago and was not part of the corruption there (right)
The whole State is corrupt.

The people elect these people. It is truely sad

It good to know there are good men still out there

[mtnman31]

Awesome deal that he is getting it. In my opinion, there have been A LOT of other valorous acts that were worthy of the honor and unfortunately weren't recognized. I can't speak for the other services, but I think the Marine Corps has put the MOH on such a high pedestal that it is unlikely we will see an award presented to a living Marine for some time. Maybe this awarding will break the ice and facilitate some other living warriors being rightfully recognized.

[Tom-ADC]

I read about this guy a few days back

IMO he has the right stuff
I would like to shake his hand and buy him a drink

Wish we had more guys like him in uniform

John

We do they all just don't get the medals.
I agree I'd buy the second drink. We just lost a Pearl Harbor survivor Medal of Honor LT John Flynn he waas a navy cchief at the time was 100 years odl when he died

[The Double D]

What I fear is the awarding of these medals is being politicized a bit. Are they being rationed out-quota's.

That is the people who review the brave acts these folks are checking blocks and one of the blocks is, has a MoH been issued to this service branch in this campaign, if so award lesser medal. I hope this isn't so.

Each action-recommendation should stand on its own merits. No quota's.


Each and every time I read one of these citations, I wonder if I would have had the courage to do what they did where I in their place!

[EOD3]

I don't remember where I read the account of his actions but I presume they were "yellowed" by an X-Box warrior with a "liberal arts" degree. What I read was just another day in the life of a grunt.

The first thing that came to mind was "photo op" for the kenyan, in some lame attempt to salvage a couple dozen military votes.

Any chance somebody has a link to the original narrative?

[Rocky Raab]

Politics aside, a few truths: Almost all medal recommendations are routinely degraded by higher headquarters reviewers. No matter what a person is put in for, he'll probably get at least one level lower medal - if he gets any at all. The reason is that it is almost universal to boost a recommendation when it's written in an attempt to "hype" the person's deeds - and also to game the system because the writers know it's going to be downgraded by the REMFs.

Second, I am honored to know a couple MoH honorees, and they claim that they do not wear the medal because they deserve it, but because those who truly do deserve it are no longer with us. THAT's the kind of guy they are, and the kind that I think all MoH guys are.

Crisp salute, Sgt Guinta.

[Larry Gibson]

Having written numerous award recommendations (including one for the MOH) and having sat on numerous awards boards in the Army the major problem is the way the recommendations are written. Each Medal, including the MOH, has a specific set of criteria that is required to be met. It isn't enough that someone "thinks" someone deserves such and such a medal. It is required that the recommendation states the Soldier/Marine/Sailer or who ever met the requirements for the medal. There also are several definitions in the regulations that most recommenders do not pay attention to. There are degrees of "above the call of duty" A junior enlisted soldier may get a medal for some thing that an officer or senior enlisted won't simply because the action of was expected of them. There are also different definitions of heroism, gallentry, bravery and service.

I many times went back to the recommender turned down or down graded awards and asked what the soldier did to deserve the award. Almost always what they said was not what they wrote. Had they read the criteria and then wrote what they said the soldier would have gotten the award. As a 1SG I reviewed many award redommendations before forwarding them to the commander. Many, many times I went back to the recommender and had them rewrite the recommendation so the soldier got the award they deserved.

Larry Gibson

[EOD3]

I know what you mean Larry, try to get a medal approved for an EOD troop. A Bronze Star requires something akin to parting the Red Sea. [smilie=b:

[cajun shooter]

The problem is that you have certain people who have never seen that big reddish orange ball coming at them. They have never felt the fight or flight syndrome in their gut. Had a very good friend who was the lone survior of his patrol. The VC thought he was dead with all his wounds. The last time I saw him at the army hospital in 68 he still had not received anything other than the loss of his left arm. He and I went in at the same time and he was a iron worker before. Can't climb steel with one arm.

[Rocky Raab]

Very true, Larry. I'd never seen that side of it before, but have observed the pattern of recommendations being turned down or degraded. Now I know why!

As an Awards and Decs Officer (a secondary duty always given to anybody who can compose a literate sentence), I had precisely zero knowledge of the intricacies or even the regulations involved while out in the field. Kinda makes it hard to abide by them, huh?

Worse, we flew a very black covert mission. What could I write? "On such and such a date, this officer did ... well, he did something that deserves a helluva medal, if only we could talk about it." The only folks who could or would properly recognize some of the deeds done were the South Vietnamese. Several of us got the MoH equivalent from them - and were promptly told we can never wear or display it.

Didn't matter. WE knew what we'd done, and the guys we saved knew what we'd done - and none of us ever paid for our own drinks again. Among guys who'd well and truly seen the elephant, that's enough.

[Larry Gibson]

Rocky

There's ways to write it but the commander has to write a cover letter stating the mission was classified and that then classifies the recommendation and it still gets processed. Takes longer but it gets done. I know of two SF MOH recipients who got their MOH that way (recently both were declassified so the narrative and citations reflect the truth). It is a shame that many deserving individuals do not get the recognition they deserve. Who knows how many very brave and deserving deeds went un witnessed or all who did died before a recomendation could be made. God bless all of them, He knows.

Larry Gibson

[Rocky Raab]

Yup. Our problem was that what we were doing was so classified we couldn't even say that it was classified! The mission wasn't de-classified until 1986, and there are still no AF historical records of it. None.

When we got the "Mission Impossible" speech that we would be disavowed, they were NOT kidding! (We actually did. That's a no-chit speech and they do not chuckle when they give it.)