Profiles in Courage: Salvatore A. Giunta
On October 19, 2007, American and Afghan forces loaded up onto UH-60 Black Hawk and CH-47 Chinook from Afghanistan's Korengal Outpost. The mission was Operation Rock Avalanche: an insertion into the southern area of the Korengal Valley to prevent Taliban fighters from fleeing the region while reducing their ability to operate against U.S. and friendly troops there.
This was Salvatore Giunta's second deployment to Afghanistan. During his first tour in the country in 2005, he was shot in the leg and lost four of his fellow soldiers in an improvised explosive device attack. After a year back at home, he deployed once more. Then-Spc. Giunta was the rifle team leader for B Company, 1st Platoon, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team during Rock Avalanche.
Less than a week after landing in the valley, Giunta and his platoon were traversing a steep crest out of the valley when the Taliban ambushed them. By the end of the engagement, the 22-year-old Giunta would be the first living person since the Vietnam War to receive the Medal of Honor.
Firebase Vegas was located in the Korengal Valley near the Afghan-Pakistan border, which the soldiers stationed there nicknamed "The Valley of Death." Operation Rock Avalanche was supposed to be a six-day mission, but the soldiers said insurgents were everywhere. On October 25, 2007, B Company was spread across a mountain. First platoon watched over second and third platoons from nearby Honcho Hill.
Just two days prior, the Taliban killed Sgt. Larry Rougle wounded two others and made off with machine guns and night vision. Their captain, Dan Kearney, went into the village to demand they return the gear. Once Kearney and the command group left the scene via helicopter, the platoons began their long trek back to base through the insurgent-filled night. As they made their way down a rocky slope, the sound of gunfire and RPGs filled the night air.
Giunta saw Sgt. Erick Gallardo fall and ran to his aid, believing he was hit. Gallardo was okay, saved by his helmet, but Giunta took two rounds, one to his own armor and the other to a weapon strapped to his shoulder. The ambush was so heavy and close that Apache helicopters could not provide air support, and the second platoon was too far away to help.
"There were more bullets in the air than stars in the sky," Giunta later told Vanity Fair. "A wall of bullets at everyone at the same time with one crack and then a million other cracks afterward. They're above you, in front of you, behind you, below you. They're hitting in the dirt early. They're going over your head. Just all over the place. They were close – as close as I've ever seen."
The two soldiers were third and fourth in line before the shooting started. Realizing the fire was coming from two directions, they did the only thing they knew could save them from being wiped out: they attacked. They began to return fire and make their way to the soldiers in front of them, suppressing the ambush using grenades. When they reached Spc. Frank Eckrode, the second man in line, they found him wounded. He had been shot four times and was trying to unjam his SAW. Then Giunta realized their point man (and Giunta's best friend), Sgt. Josh Brennan was missing.
As Gallardo tended to Eckstrode's wounds, Giunta raced to the top of the hill, exposed to enemy small arms fire, to find two insurgents trying to carry Brennan from the battlefield. He killed one, which caused the other to drop Brennan's wounded body and make a break for it. Brennan had been hit eight times, so Giunta pulled him back and tried to administer aid as the rest of his squad provided security. It wasn't long before the second and third platoon arrived.
The intense ambush had lasted only three minutes, but five men, including the platoon's medic, were down. Giunta kept Brennan alive long enough for a medevac to get him out of the area, but the man died the next day. Two days later, Giunta was informed that Kearney had recommended him for the Medal of Honor, which was presented to him at the White House on November 16, 2010, by President Barack Obama.
"I'm not here because I'm a great soldier," Giunta said at the ceremony. "I'm here because I served with great soldiers."
True to that sentiment, Giunta would gift his medal to the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team in July 2017, wanting it to remain with them.