Salvatore Giunta

On October 25, company commander Captain Dan Kearney sent 2nd and 3rd Platoon back to meet with the local village elders and to recover from them the U.S. equipment that the Taliban had captured when Rougle was killed.

1st Platoon was tasked with providing protective cover and interdicting enemy forces from a nearby ridge.

He served in the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, and worked in a support role for members of his unit then deployed in Afghanistan.

Salvatore Augustine Giunta (born January 21, 1985) is a former United States Army soldier and the first living person since the Vietnam War to receive the United States Armed Forces' highest decoration for valor, the Medal of Honor.

Giunta was born in Clinton, Iowa, on January 21, 1985, to an Italian American family.

Giunta grew up in Cedar Rapids and Hiawatha.

His parents, Steven, a medical equipment technician, and Rosemary, a preschool teacher, live in Hiawatha.

He has two younger siblings, Mario and Katie.

Giunta attended John F. Kennedy High School in Cedar Rapids.

At age 17, while working in a Subway, he decided to enlist and joined the United States Army in November 2003.

He was the first in his immediate family to serve in the armed forces since his grandparents emigrated from Italy.

Giunta attended basic training and infantry school at Fort Benning, Georgia.

He was deployed to Afghanistan from March 2005 until March 2006 and again from May 2007 until July 2008.

Giunta was cited for saving the lives of members of his squad on October 25, 2007, during the War in Afghanistan.

In 2007, Giunta was stationed at Firebase Vegas in the Korengal Valley—an area about 9.7 x near the Afghanistan–Pakistan border—which the soldiers had nicknamed the Valley of Death.

In late October, his company launched a six-day mission known as Operation Rock Avalanche.

On October 23, Taliban fighters killed Staff Sergeant Larry Rougle and wounded two other infantrymen when Rougle's position on "Honcho Hill" was overrun.

Shortly after nightfall on October 25, 2007, rifle team leader Giunta and the rest of the seven troops of 1st Platoon had just finished a day-long overwatch of 2nd and 3rd Platoon in the valley below.

Although dark, there was sufficient moonlight that night vision equipment was not needed.

They were returning to Combat Outpost Vimoto and Korengal Outpost.

They walked about 10 to(-) apart through the thin holly forest, along the Gatigal Spur of Honcho Hill at about 2438 m elevation.

Within 50 to(-) of leaving their position, 10 to 15 insurgents ambushed the main body of the squad from cover and concealment only about 10 m away, so near that the Apaches overhead could not provide close air support.

The ambushing force was armed with AK-47 assault rifles, 10 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, and 4 belt-fed PKM machine guns.

They fired an unusually high proportion of tracer rounds.

Giunta described it later:

"There were more bullets in the air than stars in the sky. A wall of bullets at every one at the same time with one crack and then a million other cracks afterwards. They're above you, in front of you, behind you, below you. They're hitting in the dirt early. They're going over your head. Just all over the place. They were close—as close as I've ever seen."

Sergeant Joshua Brennan, leader of Alpha Team and one of Giunta's best friends, was walking point.

He was followed by SPC Frank Eckrode, squad leader Erick Gallardo, and then Giunta, who was then a specialist.

PFC Kaleb Casey and Garrett Clary followed Giunta.

A 13-man Headquarters (HQ) unit led by Lt. Brad Winn, including a five-man gun team from weapons squad, along with a nurse who volunteered for the mission, followed immediately behind them.

When the Taliban opened fire, Brennan was struck by eight rounds and Eckrode was hit by four rounds.

Gallardo attempted to sprint forward, but RPGs exploding among the thin trees and 18 in-high bushes around him along with machine gun and small arms fire stopped him.

Unable to advance, he fell back to join Giunta's Bravo Team.

While backpedaling and firing at the same time, he fell and was in the same moment struck in the helmet by an AK-47 round.

The round penetrated his helmet but only grazed his scalp.

An RPG round struck very near Giunta, who was returning fire and directing Bravo Team from a small defilade.

Giunta was puzzled that the lip of the small depression he lay in was not protecting him from rounds cracking by his head, that they appeared to be coming from the north as well as the west.

He was promoted to staff sergeant in August 2009.

He left the United States Army in June 2011.

Giunta was last stationed at Caserma Ederle, the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team's base near Vicenza, Italy.