First Living Medal Of Honor Recipient Since Vietnam War

[Madeline]

Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta became the first living service member awarded the Medal of Honor for heroism in the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq at a White House ceremony this afternoon.

The medal has been awarded posthumously seven previous times for those wars.

Giunta received the medal for his heroic actions in a firefight in Afghanistan three years ago.

At the start of the ceremony, President Obama digressed from his script and ad libbed, "I really like this guy," a comment that drew loud applause and cheers from the audience of dignitaries, family and friends gathered in the White House East Room.

"We all just get a sense of people and who they are," Obama said. "And when you meet Sal and you meet his family, you are just absolutely convinced that this is what America's all about, and it just makes you proud. And so this is a joyous occasion for me, something that I have been looking forward to."

Giunta has told interviewers that any other soldier would have done what he did on the night of Oct. 25, 2007, when his platoon was ambushed by the Taliban in the Korengal Valley in eastern Afghanistan, an area so dangerous to American troops it was dubbed the "valley of death."

President Obama praised Giunta as a soldier who is "as humble as he is heroic," who has said that "he didn't do anything special, that he was just doing his job, that any of his brothers in the unit would do the same thing."

"You may believe that you don't deserve this honor," Obama added, "but it was your fellow soldiers who recommended you for it."

25-Year-Old Iowan First Living Medal of Honor Recipient for Valor in Afghanistan and Iraq Wars - ABC News

 

[waltky]

Long overdue Medals of Honor to be awarded...

2 Vietnam War soldiers to receive Medal of Honor
September 14, 2014 ~ For decades, Spc. 4 Donald P. Sloat’s mother thought he had died after stepping on a land mine in Vietnam. Then, in 2010, she heard the real story: Her son was killed saving the lives of the other men in his squad.

Evelyn Sloat died before she learned that her efforts to have her son recognized for his heroism were successful. But on Monday, nearly 45 years after Sloat’s death, his brother, Bill Sloat, will accept the Medal of Honor on his behalf. Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins was recognized for his actions during the second of his three tours to Vietnam, with a Distinguished Service Cross. But 48 years after the 38-hour fight in Camp A Shau, Vietnam, he, too, will receive the nation’s highest award for military personnel.

Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins, shown here receiving the Purple Heart while serving in Vietnam, will receive the Medal of Honor Sept. 15 for distinguishing himself during combat operations March 9-12, 1966. He was drafted in 1956 and deployed to Vietnam three times between February 1963 and December 1971.

Sloat enlisted in the Army in 1969, when he was 20 years old, and became a machine gunner with 2nd Battalion, 1st Infantry Regiment, 196th Light Infantry Brigade, Americal Division. On Jan. 17, 1970, a month before his 21st birthday, Sloat was on patrol when the lead soldier tripped a booby trap, sending a grenade rolling down the hill toward him. Sloat picked up the grenade to throw it away from his fellow soldiers, but realized it was about to explode. So he pulled the grenade into his own body, to shield the rest of his squad from the blast.

Former Pfc. DeWayne C. Lewis Jr. said he was only a few feet behind Sloat with the grenade went off. “His act saved my life,” he said, according to an Army website. Bill Sloat told the Coweta American, an Oklahoma newspaper, that he will accept his brother’s medal for his mother’s sake. “I don’t think it would have mattered to Don if he had [the medal], but he would be proud of it, and I’m proud of it,” he said at a news conference last month.

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Bennie Adkins takes a tour of the Vietnam War exhibit at the National Infantry Museum Sept. 4. Adkins will receive the Medal of Honor during a ceremony at the White House Sept. 15 for his actions during combat near Camp A Shau, Vietnam, March 9-12, 1966.

One of Sloat’s two sisters, Karen McCaslin, said at the news conference her brother was a “true American hero in every sense of the word. … He chose his path into the Army because it was what he wanted to do.” While Sloat volunteered, Adkins was drafted into the Army in 1956, when he was 22. He was initially assigned as an administrative clerk-typist, but later volunteered for and served with Special Forces for 13 years. He deployed to Vietnam from February to August of 1963, from September 1965 to September 1966, and from January to December 1971.

MORE

 

[waltky]

Hero Of Gettysburg Awarded Medal Of Honor...

Lt. Alonzo Cushing, Hero Of Gettysburg, Awarded Medal Of Honor
November 06, 2014 ~ 1st Lt. Alonzo H. Cushing, whose defense of a key ridge at the Battle of Gettysburg helped turn the tide of the Civil War and end slavery, was today posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor by the country's first black president.

At the ceremony, President Obama said the award highlights the obligation the nation has to the military men and women who serve it. "No matter how long it takes, it's never too late to do the right thing," the president said. "This story is part of our larger American story and one that continues to this very day," he said. More than 150 years after the pivotal battle, Obama bestowed the highest award for battlefield bravery to Cushing, who was killed at the age of 22 while repelling 13,000 rebel soldiers at Pickett's charge, one of the most famous tactical thrusts of the three-day fight in rural Pennsylvania.

1st Lt. Alonzo Cushing, shown in an undated photo provided by the Wisconsin Historical Society, is expected to get the nation's highest military decoration -- the Medal of Honor -- this summer, nearly 150 years after he died at the Battle of Gettysburg.

The Wisconsin native commanded about 110 men and six cannons at Gettysburg. He defended Cemetery Ridge against an assault led by Confederate Gens. George Pickett and James J. Pettigrew. The Union victory in July 1863 halted a Confederate advance into northern territory and is widely viewed by historians as a turning point in the brutal conflict. Normally, the Medal of Honor is awarded — often posthumously — within a few years of the act that merits it. However, Congress granted an exemption in the case of Cushing, whose cause, as NPR's S.V. Date reported in September, has been the subject of a three-decade campaign by a Wisconsin woman, Margaret Zerwekh, now in her 90s, who lives on what had been the Cushing family farm.

In a statement issued by the White House when it first announced the award to Cushing, it said: "Cushing was only two years out of West Point on that third day of the battle, in charge of an artillery battery in the Army of the Potomac. According to the White House announcement, Cushing was manning the only artillery piece in his unit that still worked. " 'During the advance, he was wounded in the stomach as well as in the right shoulder. Refusing to evacuate to the rear despite his severe wounds, he directed the operation of his lone field piece, continuing to fire in the face of the enemy,' the White House statement said. 'With the rebels within 100 yards of his position, Cushing was shot and killed during this heroic stand.' "

Confederate soldiers are shown during the Battle of Gettysburg, July 3, 1863, as Gen. George E. Pickett orders his 15,000 men to charge.

The Milwaukee Sentinel reports: "Receiving the medal will be Cushing's closest relative, Helen Loring Ensign, 85, of California. "Cushing died childless at age 22, and none of his brothers had children. It took the Army Past Conflict Repatriations Branch weeks to find the closest living relative after the president announced in late August that he would present the posthumous medal to Cushing. "Ensign is related to Cushing through Cushing's mother and is his first cousin twice removed."

Lt. Alonzo Cushing Hero Of Gettysburg Awarded Medal Of Honor The Two-Way NPR

 

[waltky]

Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta donated his Medal of Honor to Brigade He Says Earned It...

Soldier Gives His Medal of Honor to the Brigade He Says Earned It
9 Jul 2017 | In a ceremony marking the 173rd's new memorial Sal Giunta unfastened the medal's ribbon and handed it to the brigade commander.

The Medal of Honor has always hung heavily around Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta's neck. On Wednesday, he finally got to take it off. In a ceremony marking the 173rd Airborne Brigade's new memorial to all the brigade's soldiers who earned the military's highest award, the former Subway sandwich maker unfastened the medal's blue ribbon from his neck and handed it over to the brigade commander. "It can't be with me because it's ours," said Giunta. In 2010, for his heroic actions during an ambush in Afghanistan, became the first living man to earn the medal since the Vietnam War. "I want this to stay in Vicenza, Italy, with the 173rd, with the men and women who earn this every single day through their selflessness and sacrifice," he said.

Former Staff Sgt. Sal Giunta gives his Medal of Honor to 173rd Airborne Brigade Commander Col. Greg Anderson during a ceremony marking a new memorial to the brigade's 18 MoH awardees on July 6, 2017, in Vicenza, Italy.​

Giunta's gift to the brigade came near the beginning of a casual, 45-minute event in which privates, children and civilians strolled with war heroes, sergeants major and a major general along a brick walkway on a balmy Italian evening. The walkway, stretching from the brigade headquarters to the gym, is lined with 18 memorials to men who, on what was frequently the worst and final day of their lives, displayed conspicuous gallantry and uncommon valor. Two fought in World War II, 13 fought in Vietnam and three fought in Afghanistan, including Giunta, Sgt. Kyle White and Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts. All are remembered with a stone pedestal bearing plaques that show their faces and recite their heroic deeds. "I want this to stay in Vicenza, Italy, with the 173rd, with the men and women who earn this every single day through their selflessness and sacrifice," he said.

Giunta's gift to the brigade came near the beginning of a casual, 45-minute event in which privates, children and civilians strolled with war heroes, sergeants major and a major general along a brick walkway on a balmy Italian evening. The walkway, stretching from the brigade headquarters to the gym, is lined with 18 memorials to men who, on what was frequently the worst and final day of their lives, displayed conspicuous gallantry and uncommon valor. Two fought in World War II, 13 fought in Vietnam and three fought in Afghanistan, including Giunta, Sgt. Kyle White and Staff Sgt. Ryan Pitts. All are remembered with a stone pedestal bearing plaques that show their faces and recite their heroic deeds.

Soldier Gives His Medal of Honor to the Brigade He Says Earned It | Military.com