Life-changing responsibility comes with MoH - Army News | News from Afghanistan & Iraq - Army Times

Life-changing responsibility comes with MoH

Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta’s life has changed forever, said retired Maj. Gen. Patrick Brady. He should know. Like Giunta, Brady also earned the Medal of Honor.

Retired Col. Roger Donlon agrees. He, too, earned the country’s highest military honor. It literally changed his life: Donlon even attributes the medal to helping him find his wife of 42 years.

“When she saw me in that picture in the paper, she told herself that she has to meet this gentleman. That’s what started it, unbeknownst to me,” said Donlon, who met his wife, Norma, after the two happened to sit next to each other on a plane.

Life as a regular soldier in the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team ended for Giunta on Nov. 16, when President Obama draped the Medal of Honor around Giunta’s neck. He earned it for his heroics in a brutal firefight in Afghanistan’s Korengal Valley on Oct. 25, 2007.

Entry into the Congressional Medal of Honor Society isn’t always what it might seem, said three living recipients of the medal.

“We always say it’s tougher to wear the medal than to earn it,” said Brady, who earned his in the Vietnam War after piloting a UH-1 Huey and rescuing 51 wounded soldiers surrounded by North Vietnamese soldiers on Jan. 6, 1968.

Peter Lemon, also a living recipient, avoided the attention altogether for 13 years by putting his medal away. “I went about my life as normal, worked, went to college, went into business because I put the award in a shoebox in the closet,” Lemon said.

Lemon earned his medal as he fought off a 400-man assault alongside his 18-man platoon at a fire base in Vietnam’s Tay Ninh province on April 1, 1970. He shunned the award, saying he was only one of 18 and they deserved it, especially three soldiers who died, just as much as he did.

Forty years later he said wearing the Medal of Honor is a responsibility — not a choice — and the responsibility is weighty. “The Medal of Honor as a symbol can sometimes be larger than you are as an individual,” he said.

The official perks that come with the medal — including a 10 percent increase in retirement pay, a special clothing allowance, a Medal of Honor flag and guaranteed entry into the service academies for the recipient’s children — might be nice. It’s the unofficial ones — predatory book agents, speaking engagements and public scrutiny — that come with it that can lead to trouble, the living recipients warned.

“He has to be careful or people will try to exploit him,” Brady said.

Soldiers who fought alongside Giunta don’t plan on letting that happen. Three NCOs said they have no intention of providing any special treatment — except for the tradition of saluting a recipient, no matter the rank.

“I’m just going to make sure I salute him every chance I get,” said Staff Sgt. Erick Gallardo with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, who was in the 2007 battle with Giunta. “As for the unit, when we get back, he’s still Sal to us. He just got a prettier medal than the rest of us.”

When Brady returned to his unit in 1968, he said the attention died down after a couple weeks and everything went back to normal. Brady said Giunta’s officers will not be afraid to “chew his butt just like anyone else.”

Giunta’s fellow soldiers agreed.

“His real friends are the ones who are still going to give him a hard time every day and keep him in check and let him know how it is,” said Staff Sgt. Michael Burns with the 173 Airborne Brigade Combat Team.

What his role in the Army will be remains a question — if he decides to re-enlist at all. It is a decision that he hasn’t discussed with Gallardo, Burns or Staff Sgt. Brett M. Perry.

Brady said he doubts the Army would send Giunta back into combat. Giunta remained in Italy during the 173rd’s most recent Afghanistan deployment. Former Medal of Honor recipients, though, have deployed again. Marine Sgt. John Basilone, hero of Guadalcanal in 1942, was killed on Iwo Jima three years later. Army Maj. Gen. Keith Ware was killed in Vietnam after earning his Medal of Honor for actions in 1944.

Donlon chose to stay in the Army, retiring as a colonel after 33 years of service. Donlon was the first living Medal of Honor recipient for the Vietnam War. He can still remember the first time a senior officer, Lt. Gen. Louis Truman, saluted him.

“I turned around because I thought he was saluting someone behind me. It took me by surprise, but it’s a sign of respect for those who have earned the medal and I responded with a salute of my own,” Donlon said.

A general leaned over to then Capt. Donlon during his Medal of Honor ceremony and told the young officer he will no longer be known as Roger Donlon, but instead the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor in the Vietnam War.

“And I said the hell I am, I am going to be Roger Donlon the rest of my life, but little did I know,” he said.

The titles and the attention, though, are what made Giunta hesitant to accept the medal at first. He could do without all the television interviews and speaking engagements, Perry said. However, like the living recipients who came before him, Giunta felt a certain sense of responsibility.

“He doesn’t want to be in the limelight but sees that this country is in need of someone to look up to and he can be that inspiration for people and I think it’s for the good of the country, and he’s going to be that person to step up to be the person people look up to,” Perry said.