Medal of Honor winner tells harrowing tale at Stambaugh

By Denise Dick | September 18, 2014 at 12:09a.m.

YOUNGSTOWN

When Salvatore Giunta stood on the stage during a White House ceremony and received the Medal of Honor — the first living service member to receive it since the Vietnam War — from President Barack Obama, he was embarrassed.

It felt “blasphemous and inappropriate,” he said.

“It hurt to be the only one to receive that medal,” Giunta, who was a U.S. Army staff sergeant, said.

Giunta was the featured speaker Wednesday at Stambaugh Auditorium for Youngstown State University’s James and Coralie Centofanti Symposium. His presentation focused on service and sacrifice.

“Nothing I did was better than what anyone else did,” he said.

Giunta, a native of Iowa, was serving a tour in October 2007 in Afghanistan when he and his team were ambushed by the enemy. He saw his squad leader get hit.

“His head snapped back and his body fell,” Giunta said.

Giunta ran to help, pulling his leader to safety. Enemy fire struck Giunta’s body armor as well as one of his weapons before he started lobbing grenades.

The team was grounded by more enemy fire while trying to reach fellow soldiers and that’s when Giunta realized that one of his comrades wasn’t there.

He ran toward the enemy, believing that’s where his buddy, Joshua Brennan, would be.

“I saw two people carrying another person” but it took him a few seconds to process that enemy fighters were dragging Brennan away.

Giunta fired, killing one of the enemies and wounding the other. He pulled Brennan back to safety, and Brennan was flown by helicopter to a military medical facility. He died later during surgery.

When one of Giunta’s superior officers first told him that he had nominated him for the Medal of Honor, Giunta was angry.

He only did what he’d been trained to do and was only able to do it because the others in his unit did what they did. Besides, Brennan died anyway, he said.

Another soldier, Specialist Hugo Mendoza, the squad’s medic also died, killed within the first few seconds of the attack.

Since he was awarded the medal in 2010, however, some other soldiers have taken Giunta under their wing and helped him understand.

“It’s not my medal,” he said. “It’s not for me at all. I wear it for those who can’t.”

He wears it for all of the men and women who have served this country and made it the greatest country in the world.

He encouraged those attending to serve others in whatever way they’re able.

“Give it everything you have,” Giunta said.