Huge News, A New American Hero

Posted by Jeff Carter
on September 13th, 2010

President Obama will award a Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta. No doubt, it will be a touching ceremony. They always are. I have been more than fortunate to be able to meet many living Medal of Honor recipients in my lifetime. They are some of the most amazing people you will ever meet if you get a chance to sit down and speak with them.

I have met recipients from all of our wars since World War Two. Staff Sgt. Giunta is the first Medal of Honor recipient that lived to talk about it in Afghanistan, or Iraq. There have been six other medals awarded.

The Medal of Honor is the highest military award that one can receive. It is not given to anyone lightly. You don’t win it. You receive it. The first time I met a group of Medal of Honor recipients, someone made the mistatke of saying “win”, and Jack Lucas screamed, “recipients“. Mr. Lucas was suffering and wheeling an oxygen tank at the time, but still found the air power to correct the speaker. It wasn’t a small room! Besides the valor that one must engage in during combat, there is a bureaucratic chain of command that ratifies the paperwork for the medal. Paperwork has been lost, denying deserving people a medal.

First, two other soldiers that witnessed the action must give a written and verbal description of the act. The superior officer writes up the paperwork, and decides if the action was heroic enough for a medal. From that point, it passes up the chain of command. At each level, the officer decides if the action was heroic enough for a medal. Eventually, it comes before an honor board of officers. Those officers decide whether to recommend a medal, and pass the documents along to the President of the United States. Ceremonies are bittersweet, always.

Many times, heroic actions were undertaken on the field of battle, and no one survived to tell the story. Or, maybe no one lived except the person who engaged in the heroic action. Then, there are no witnesses. Or, the paperwork is lost, not filled out. Perhaps the person loses his life in another action. Perhaps the witnesses lose their lives in another action before they can tell the story. It’s not like receiving any medal is on anyone’s mind in the heat of battle.

Virtually every Medal of Honor citation that you can read will amaze you. One is not any greater than the other. They all are great. Buy this book if you’d like to learn more.

I once organized a bell ringing on the CME/CBOT exchange floor. We were having breakfast with some of the recipients, and someone asked them why more medals were not awarded. They were very clear with us. Number one, there are no Medal of Honor recipients on the committee that decides. The decision is made by active duty officers. Second, they don’t campaign, complain or otherwise interfere in the process in any way. The most interesting point was this. As technology has developed, the nature of war has changed. There are not as many hand to hand combat fights. Most of the war is fought at a distance. This means there are less deaths, wounded, and opportunities for heroic action. Importantly, the lack of Medal of Honor awards don’t reflect at all on the soldiers of today.

In Chicago, the Pritzker Military Library has done tremendous work documenting, and interviewing, living Medal of Honor recipients. Some have passed away since their interviews. It is great that the Library has undertook such a noble undertaking. Virtually all the living recipients do charity work. They engage the community. They do it nationwide. This year there is a convention in South Carolina. If you ever get a chance, go. It’s worth every penny you’ll spend on the trip.

Additionally, virtually every recipient I have met is very humble. They know that they have cheated death. They also care about their fellow human being more than most people that walk this earth. Of course, when you ask them, they tell you that you would have done the same thing as them-given the chance.

To a person, they don’t like telling their story. One recipient, Joe Jackson, once told me that he loves hearing everyone else’s story but hated telling his. It was the worst day of his life! Staff Sgt. Giunta is no exception.

God bless Staff Sgt. Giunta. He has earned it. Hopefully, you will get a chance to meet him someday. He would never say it, but he is a true hero of the human race. Here is a video of his parents. They deserve to be proud.

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