On the recordJanuary 25, 2011
I am particularly honored today to join my friend and colleague, Congressman Latham, in offering this resolution. Tomorrow, the Iowa delegation will join the Chief of Staff of the Army, General George Casey, and Senator Inouye to honor and recognize Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. Staff Sergeant Giunta is from Hiawatha, Iowa, at the moment--although he was born and raised in Clinton. Hiawatha is a town I am proud to represent in the Second District. I first had the honor of meeting Sergeant Giunta--or Sal--while visiting our troops stationed overseas during the 2009 Thanksgiving holiday, and I was able to have Thanksgiving dinner with him at Vicenza. What immediately struck me about Sergeant Giunta was his humility. He made sergeant in just 4 years. He was a veteran of two tours in Afghanistan by the time he was 22 years old. And while surrounded by Taliban fighters in the Korengal Valley in 2007 and having been hit twice himself, he ran directly into gunfire in order to save his wounded comrades and prevent a U.S. soldier from being captured. Yet since being awarded the Medal of Honor, Sergeant Giunta has insisted that what he did to save his fellow paratroopers was nothing any other soldier wouldn't have done.
