President Obama presents the Medal of Honor to Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta during a ceremony in the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2010. Sgt. Giunta, from Hiawatha, Iowa, is the first living veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to receive the award. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Army staff sergeant who stepped into the line of fire to help a pair of comrades on the Afghan battlefield received the Medal of Honor on Tuesday — the nation’s top military award.
President Obama awarded the medal to Sgt. Salvatore Giunta at a White House ceremony, making the 25-year-old Iowan the first living service member from the Iraq or Afghanistan wars to be so honored. Seven others have received the award posthumously.
Mr. Obama called Sgt. Giunta a solider who is “as humble as he is heroic” and said the ceremony was a “joyous occasion.”
The Army says Sgt. Giunta was a rifle team leader in eastern Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley when his squad was split in two after an ambush by insurgents. While under fire, Sgt. Giunta pulled a fellow soldier to cover and rescued another who was being dragged away by the enemy.
By Douglas Holtz-Eakin
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