Giunta survived the Korengal Valley, a nest for Taliban fighters in northeast Afghanistan. During the ambush, as that wall of bullets slammed into Giunta’s unit, the enemy cut down his squad leader. The CMH citation tells us that Giunta “exposed himself to withering enemy fire and raced towards his squad leader, helped him to cover and administered medical aid.” While treating his fallen brother, Giunta himself was hit and returned fire. He saw other wounded soldiers and began moving toward them, only to be forced to the ground by “a barrage of enemy fire.” Then, after Giunta reached that cluster of wounded troops, the citation tells us, “He observed two insurgents carrying away an American soldier. He immediately engaged the enemy, killing one and wounding the other.”
“I saw two of them trying to carry Brennan away and I started shooting at them,” Giunta later recalled in a New York Times interview. “They dropped him and when I looked at him, he was still conscious.”
The Times report gives us a glimpse of why Giunta risked everything for Brennan. Whenever the platoon went out on patrol, “Brennan was always in the lead, without protest. Even after he’d been shot in the calf two months earlier when their patrol was ambushed. He’d do anything for his friends.”
And Giunta showed that he’d do anything for Brennan.
Brennan wouldn’t survive his wounds. But because of Giunta, he died with his unit, among the heroes, with one of his brothers holding his hand and praying with him as he crossed from this life to the next.
If you wonder just how heroic Giunta was, consider this: This is the first time since the Vietnam War that a CMH has been given to a living person in the midst of an ongoing conflict.
True to form, Giunta doesn’t think of himself as anything special. “Everyone out there is brave,” Giunta says of his fellow soldiers, airmen and Marines. “I was one person being brave in a group of a whole bunch of people that were being just as brave.”
Even though Giunta never wanted to tell this story, I am thankful that it got out. We need to hear these stories. We need to know what our freedom costs. We need to understand that nine years and two months without a terror attack on American soil comes at a very high price.
Alan W. Dowd writes on national security and defense.
These brave men in women in the armed forces put the rest of us to shame. I feel nothing but the deepest gratitude for their service and their sacrifices. It's my great hope that this generation of proud warriors will come home and over the next 20 years step in and fill the leadership void that is plaguing our country.
Chezwick_Mac,
As a Capt in the United States Air Force who recently returned from a deployment to Guantanamo Bay Cuba please do not feel shame. as long as you stand up for liberty and reject political correctness you have nothing to fell ashamed for.
Just be willing to recognize the enemy, those who wish to deprive us of our freedoms, and be willing to publicly expose them. Anyone who does that has earned my respect.
Hooah,
The "shame" remark was more of an expression than anything else, an attempt to amplify my feelings of gratitude towards you and all the other men and women that make up the US Armed Forces. Fact is, I DON'T feel shame, but I DO feel humbled by the bravery and dedication of men and women such as yourself.
Please rest assured that there are at least some of us civilians out here who grasp the essence of the civilizational struggle we find ourselves in at the this critical juncture in human history. I myself began "recognizing the enemy" shortly after the fall of communism, when I stopped seeing the world through the Cold-War prism and began comprehending the profoundly totalitarian impulses emanating from the Islamic world. I've spent the better part of two decades trying to alert friends, loved ones, anyone who would listen…that Islam is and always has been antithetical to human freedom and gender equality. It's been a hard slog. I've been called a bigot/racist on more than one occasion.
On the other hand, contrast the indignities of such verbal denigration to the extraordinary challenges of life-and-death combat faced by those in uniform…and I've got absolutely nothing to complain about. So, please allow me to express my deepest thanks to you personally for your service to our great country.
After photographing and being around numerous MOH recipients over the past ten years, I can humbly say that Staff Sgt Giunta and his wife are going to find themselves on a seemingly never-ending train of invitations to events… some, where entire small towns will come out to honor him. He already knows, that he carries that medal for his lost comrades, and as I heard another MOH say, "carrying that medal will be vastly harder than earning it."… and with that, millions of Americans will keep him in our prayers.
It is a shame that he had to receive the CMH from someone who cannot pronounce "corpsman".
Mr. Dowd,
Your grandfathers' stories are most definitely worth sharing as well!
Both of my grandfathers were also WWII vets, and their disinterest in trumpeting their personal stories (along with their pals) really speaks to a fundamental sense of values that has most certainly eroded, but thankfully has not disappeared as proven by this article.
I was in my 20's before I learned that my mom's best friend's dad, a guy that I had grown up with, stormed the beach at Normandy, along with two other old-timers in my small hometown. They simply did it and got on with their lives.
Yes, so did my dad…he was at Normandy and almost got caught up in the worst part of the Battle of the Bulge…several men he knew died. He says that men just came home and got on with their lives. Sometimes he will talk a little bit about it now, but I don't think something like that ever leaves you.
This country has a bad record of support for its troops. In 1848, over 50 years after his death, Congress discharged what it considered its final obligation to John Paul Jones by paying his heirs. A lot of good that did him. Then the troops returning from Vietnam had to bear violent attacks and insults as a result of grievances the protesters had with the president and congress. Such attacks are not uncommon today.
In view of the hostility of a significant number, the ingratitude of the many, and the indifference of the majority, as a veteran, I don't understand why ANYONE would join the military, for the soldier must guard against not only the enemy on his front-side, but against politicians on his backside as well.
The DBM says this comment is too long. I’ve thus presented it in two replies called “Learn Trauma Management.”
Congratulations to this veteran for the CMH. Much deserved. And I regret the loss of his men and those also wounded.
The address of psychological trauma, whether it affects combatants, sexual abuse victims in the home, or crime victims is etiologically (source of a problem) the same. And, no matter training to professional levels where the combatant expects – thinks he or she is prepared for – difficult conditions that present during battle, the personal aspects fo that consciousness are still vulnerable. That is, the event contradicts core elements of existential personal identity (values, beliefs, images and other reality perceptual and actual components) no matter behavioral inculcations necessary for completing the mission. The contradictions store in memory in Long Term Potentiations and Depressions of the synapse (traces). As the brain attempts to integrate the contradictions, neuronal morphological change is required – the development of additional synaptic processes. That activity is facilitated by the HAPA or biological stress response. It manifest behaviorally as grief. It then can be suppressed or otherwise denied – postponed until the defenses collapse.
Not discussing the event – using stoicism philosophy as the cerebral controller as needed during survival – suppresses and then represses the brain's attempts to integrate the neurological change. The event and thus the trauma's etiology will no doubt produce sequelae over the years – decades that manifest behaviorally as untoward behaviors and experiences that also depreciate the originally affected consciousness. That behavioral representation of the sequelae is called in the DSM, which guides the clinical mentality and response, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The word "disorder" stigmatizes. For military personnel sustaining such experiences, the term should be changed to read "injury," or post traumatic stress injury. I've been advocating this change since the original DSM diagnosis was configured in 1980. "Disorder" focuses the epistemological elements of the experts' and public's response on the subsequent behaviors instead of the original injury to identity.
Telling the story or "talking about it" is a start, but not the answer. Identifying the event's initial contradictions to identity and attendant loss, all correlated existentially to the original identity elements sundered is the path for facilitation of the sequelae until completed. It is formally called "extinction." That means the brain and other elements of the biology (Endocrine system) will complete the integration of the reality that existed pre trauma with the one that exists post trauma, albeit if not interfered with by exogenous variables: imposition of be strong philosophies that preclude the noted etiology's address and drug – including alcohol use. When extinction and brain integration are done, the trauma is done. No more mystery, drama or unmanageable problem. The trauma's referenced etiology may be expunged, no matter the kind of event.
See next "Learn Trauma Management part 2 of 2"
Learn Trauma Management Part 2 of 2
Behavioral models that skip the existential address and instead teach injured combatants how to live life anew function as enablers to the etiology stored in the neurobiology of memory. They change the subject from what happened to the veteran to how he or she is supposed to live life when back in the USA. Hence, a modality conflict arises which is addressed politically instead of logically, meaning not always with the veteran's best interest at the forefront. That conflict, which exists in the management circles of the VA and DOD, causes bad things to happen for veterans. For example, when those organizations respond behaviorally and pharmacologically, their methods are ineffectual, which produce PTSD in veterans that may not show up at critical levels (a breakdown in life manageability) for 20 to 40 years. The government and the citizenry then escape their liability to their employees – the trauma affected combat veteran.
The public, particularly the conservative thinkers and writers as the left doesn't believe our military should be defending us in the first place, need to get in this battle at the so called "counseling" or otherwise clinical level and manage their responsibilities to veterans. The Dole – Shallala Commission led the way in 2007, and Senator Dole, bless his wonderful veteran's heart and solid conservative thinking judgment did a magnificent job of turning the scandal ridden bureaucracies on their butts, for a while. But that work was eventually eaten up by the clinical bureaucracy. It tries to retain its power, keeping its methodologies intact, and more importantly the careers for its leadership. Those methodologies – cognitive behavioral therapies merged with experiments with always hoped for new and improved psychotropic medications result in assembly-line clinical responses, drug induced warehousing of trauma affected veterans, a military that is stigmatized into not using the medical response system, burnout by otherwise dedicated practitioners, a confused public and its representatives, and a few periodic movie producers who keep wanting every 10 years to create awareness of the plight of returning combat traumatized veterans.
We can do better than this. All can be avoided by approaching trauma etiotropically – address trauma at its heart / etiology locused in identity instead of nosotropically, which means addressing its behavioral symptoms. Pharmacology is not necessary except in the case of morbidity (simultaneously but otherwise unrelated occurring illnesses) with schizophrenia and bipolar (true) disorders – rarities in veterans because they are screened at the onset for these medical issues.
You may be thinking "Hey. That's not for me. I'll leave the clinical matters to the experts." Don't. The experts are not good enough to get this job done. This management problem needs you! Get in the battle for the recovery of the hearts and minds of traumatized combat veterans. You owe it to them for what they've given you. Not just freedom, but life itself.
Jesse Collins
When I was a young research scientist-engineer, I had the privilege of working with a semi retired Dr Walter Hess, who caustically said of Pyschiatrists – "In my 40 plus years as Dean of the Georgetown Medical School, I never met or even heard of a single one of these charlatans on the fringes of voodoo who ever cured anybody of anything." I still agree wuth him.
Regardless of who you or that particular M.D. have met, or what prejudices you bring to the issue of human psychology, combat trauma is wholly curable, depending on the modality. It has been for at least 35 years. That is the issue. Not your experience in the field of engineering. Do it now, no matter your meanderings through Western Civ.
PTSD fraud is well documented and grew huge roots after Vietnam. Those who practiced PTSD fraud then are largely responsible for the smear of that generation's vets – both with and without PTSD. This will only make it worse for our generation. Make no mistake – there is $$$$$ in PTSD fraud. If you make it easier to practice that fraud – ECON 101 tells you all you need to know. Sure – you may help one; but you create enough fraud to smear thousands.
As a friend put it in correspondence with me yesterday, it DEFINES PTSD as "something a veteran says they have." It follows that legally there can be no such thing as PTSD fraud. (unless someone claims vet status fraudulently.) The fraud is the one the government is perpetrating on the American people. This also separates veterans into two classes – those who admit they have PTSD and those who deny it. I believe Orwell saw this coming. "there is $$$$$ in PTSD fraud" – there is even more money in treating an "epidemic" be it real or not.
Thanks for your debate comments USMCSniper; here are mine again in two parts, as this is an important, as in strategic, subject.
Whether fraud exist in PTSD compensation claims or treatment provisions is irrelevant to this discussion. This article was and is about the real, unequivocal, unambiguous Price of Freedom, which employee medical care that stems from combat trauma is a part thereof. Combat trauma does exist and it does cause lifetime damage. If you don’t think so, then for purposes of this discussion you are living on Saturn. Your changing of the subject to the address of phony claims, although rightly persuadable as another issue, when advanced as the primary subject as you are doing here causes more bigotry and harm to rule against, rather than care for, veterans. Those who are affected will not come forward because of such claims and adhomenums. And those aspersions come from a fantasy world comprised of paranoia and ignorant hype, which causes real combat veterans great suffering.
Now if you want to join a crusade to search out all the fraud claims for PTSD, do it, prove it, write an article with a comments section for us conservatives, and save us all a lot of money. But the subject here is about those combat veterans who HAVE been affected by combat trauma. The original article was bringing awareness, as usual to the issue. Are you supposing that the subject of that article, the CMH awardee, was not and is not suffering psychological trauma from combat? No you are not. Even someone from engineer profession doesn’t sink to that level of intellect.
Every generation with every war tries to bring such awareness (as has this article) to the public. My interest is in extending that effort to the war where the trauma is being addressed: the management models that are responsible for interdicting trauma in the battlezone and following it all the way home till it is no more. I've tried to explain the problems inherent to the professional conflict over how to do that affects veterans deleteriously for life; and for your focus and pecuniary interests, it cost trillions more in money. Here it is again for you in terms that maybe an engineer-researcher whose had a conversation with a non mental health medical practitioner can understand.
If the culture takes your approach, which is to rely upon adhomenums – slander and libel an entire class of professionals and their efforts to help, and which population by the way I have debated on a daily basis since Kerry testified to congress in 1971 ─ then you give credit to the left who ridicules the right for stupidity. You claim an engineering and researching background, but write as if you missed the basic courses in logic in undergraduate school. Instead of addressing the problem raised at the beginning, you are employing hysterical management methods in this debate-discussion-conflict arising between you and me.
See next post for conclusion
Next 2 of 2
Now back to the issue I raised in support of the article, do your duty as an American citizen and cure or support one for combat trauma for its veterans when it occurs and save the taxpayer the BIG bucks you are crying and whining about. Remove the trauma at its onset – NO CLAIMS!! So not only do you save a lot of money doing it my way, but you provide great care and the return of the true, that is, original mind to those who've been harmed while keeping us alive.
If you don't believe trauma can be cured, then you've joined the ranks of the very treatment industry you are railing against. That is what Behaviorists say. Thereafter, claims for PTSD are based on that modality’s supposition. And they make their money, which is hard earned no matter their lacks of success by the way, because the injury and its improperly treated behavioral effects last forever in that and your supporting scenarios.
Whether you like it or not, the facts of combat trauma and their neurobiological substrates are voluminously more documented than are the fraud claims. Moreover and considering your hyper hysterical cries regarding the mental health plagues caused by Vietnam veterans, the sending of an Army of individuals into multiple tours, as we have over the last decade to Afghanistan and Iraq, where both set piece and guerrilla – terrorists styled battles bombard the same people repetitiously, creates the real combat trauma epidemic which you wish wasn't occurring. Regardless of those wishful thinkings, as the article title declares, combat trauma is one of "The Prices of Freedom." And if you want to fight the Islamists as all of you do seem to want to do on this site, then you better be prepared to pay for it. I’ll promise you one thing, you are not going to leave that price anymore on the backs of combat veterans as you have in WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan!
Now one more time. Take your pick USMCSniper. Choose number one: Cure and end trauma – that is instead of squawking about irrelevant variables and demeaning people you don’t know nor have ever met, much less studied, find out what curing trauma means, study it like the researcher you propose to be, argue it out in the arena of real debate on the incremental issues – finish it in the hearts and minds of combat veterans when it occurs so that there are no claims, and our men and women come home free of it altogether. Or pick number two, which your response so far has supported, call trauma incurable (you do the same thing when you play like it is not there or divert attention from it) and treat and pay for it forever, setting up the ever-growing system for the very scams to which you are trying to divert attention. There is no basis for a behavioral disorder claim if the underpinnings of that referenced malady can be treated successfully and completely.
There are strategic benefits to addressing trauma forthrightly. They are even more important than caring for and loving the men and women who defend us; because without them, nobody's going to be able to love anybody. It's not allowed by law in the opposition's camp. Offensive Trauma Managers, whether Islamists, Stalinists, Maoists or Uncle Hoists, use unresolved trauma resulting from battle and guerilla-terrorism styled war to turn consensually managed populations against their battle traumatized armies, ala Vietnam ─ both in the case of the French and the Americans ─ which you seem to be an expert on. That’s easier for the mind controllers to do if traumatized combatants are required to remain that way by cost cutters and you sharp money savers who play like it isn’t happening and that it isn't an expense of doing business. While you are engaged in your armed forces undermining activity from the right, the left targets the onsite (in theater – in country) and returning veteran’s character in their personal attacks upon those Soldiers, Marines, Airmen and Navy personnel who otherwise carry out the majority’s constitutionally ordained directions. Put those two things together, unresolved individual and systemically experienced trauma and gross personal character attacks from the left, and you will be assured the loss of will – also referenced as a loss of morale – to fight of not just an army, but an entire country. In that process and eventually you are going to lose a civilization along with it if you don’t snap to.
Leave trauma of combatants unaddressed and devastation of your capacities to stand against hierarchically control-based managed systems is exactly what you will bring about.
So try to get, as we conservatives would say here at Frontpage Magazine, on the right side of support for our veterans first. Removing the trauma is more important on this page at this time in history than hiring Marvin Zindler, rest in peace, to save your pocketbook, which you are not going to fatten anyway with the military weakening ideology and methods you are trying to employ in the debate ongoing between you and me.
Fall in conservative USMCSniper. Do your job, help your brothers, and save the country and the world. We need to pull together to do that.
Semper Fi,
Jesse Collins
Thank you for your service but I'm sad that you got the medal from an enemy of the United States!
(I've seen her on TV several times in recent days, from a distance, and the left side of her face is drooping badly. I get closer and it disappears. Hillary is about to have a stroke.)
Bravo , Staff Sgt. Giunta ! I salute you from my heart.
American Christian Infidel
Michael Canzano
Not one American should die for any muzlim. they are worth nothing except to pedophile corrupt bho followers.
That is great but understand we have always had a Army! that has always been great.
Well, it looks like we are going to have another army, a civilian army. After all Obama said we needed to have a civilian army that is just as strong and just as well funded as our military. Janet Napolitano has announced and Pistole stated, they want to expand the TSA to ships,subways, trains etc. That won;'t be the end of it. Next they'll stop cars. Of course, it has been announced members of congress or anyone with official govt. papers will be exempt. The TSA is organizing. They are unionizing. They don't like the way we question them. It will come to the point you won't dare to lift your gaze to them. I'm afraid all our heros and all the blood shed for this country has been for naught.
The MOH Has been and is being used as A Race medal. the funny thing is obama had the idea he was going to place this Medal on a hispanic Indao from mexico; "did you see the look on his face when he saw a white hispanic standing in front of him."
Although I would