Sunday, May 25, 2014

Just Doing Their Jobs

 
I want to start by being absolutely clear that Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta is an extraordinary hero. In the same circumstance that he found himself in that prompted his being granted the Medal Of Honor I may very well have simply huddled in a corner blubbering and wetting my pants.

With that said I wish to examine the dynamics of what creates this and our other decorated heroes.  Staff Sgt. Giunta has gone to great lengths to downplay his actions with the old “Aw shucks, I was just doing my job ma’am” mantra. I expect that the humility is real, and that he really feels that way.  Now again, I do not wish to downplay Staff Sgt Giunta’s extraordinary heroism at all, but rather to emphasize all of the heroes that we will never know of. We will never know of them or recognize their equal heroism to Staff Sgt Giunta’s because the bullet was  two feet to the left or right, or because they were first in line instead of third.