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Speaker 1: The link is also in our show notes below. Pushkin,
Speaker 1: the staff sergeant, sat at his desk at the United
Speaker 1: States Army base in Vicenza, Italy. It was September of
Speaker 1: twoenty ten. His name was Salvatore Genta, and he was
Speaker 1: waiting for a phone call. Just the thought of the
Speaker 1: call made him queasy. He was pretty sure what the
Speaker 1: news would be. There had been rumors about it for years,
Speaker 1: rumors that he preferred not to think about. They were
Speaker 1: too upsetting. But the day before he'd learned that the
Speaker 1: call was definitely coming, so he asked his wife to
Speaker 1: sit in the office with him. She watched his face
Speaker 1: as he watched the phone. Sao was twenty five years
Speaker 1: old and had been a member of the Army in
Speaker 1: the one hundred and seventy third Airborne Brigade. For seven years.
Speaker 1: He had seen some of the worst and most relentless
Speaker 1: fighting in all of Afghanistan. He had been in the
Speaker 1: Corangall Valley. The soldiers called it the Valley of Death
Speaker 1: for good reason. It had been a nightmare. But it
Speaker 1: was a nightmare that Sal had been willing to take
Speaker 1: part in, excited even unlike this call. He wasn't excited
Speaker 1: about this at all. And then the phone rang. Sal
Speaker 1: took his wife's hand. He answered the phone and a
Speaker 1: voice said, please hold for the President of the United States.
Speaker 2: I'm j R.
Speaker 1: Martinez and this is Medal of Honor. Stories of Courage.
Speaker 1: The Medal of Honor is the highest military decoration in
Speaker 1: the United States, awarded for gallantry and bravery and combat
Speaker 1: at the risk of life, above and beyond the call
Speaker 1: of duty. Each candidate must be approved all the way
Speaker 1: up the chain of command, from the supervisory officer in
Speaker 1: the field to the White House. This show is about
Speaker 1: those heroes, what they did, what it meant, and what
Speaker 1: their stories tell us about the nature of courage and sacrifice.
Speaker 1: When Sal Junta finished that phone call with the President,
Speaker 1: he looked up and saw it wasn't just his wife
Speaker 1: sitting in the room. There were maybe fifty people packed
Speaker 1: into an office that only had space for five deaths.
Speaker 1: They were there because Sal, their low key, unassuming friend,
Speaker 1: was going to be the first living Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: recipient in almost forty years. Sal's friends, his coworkers, his wife,
Speaker 1: they were all so proud. But you know who wasn't proud.
Speaker 1: Sal Junta Sald deployed to Afghanistan for the first time
Speaker 1: in two thousand and five. He was twenty, a super
Speaker 1: gung ho dude who literally couldn't wait to get into action.
Speaker 3: I remember when they told us we had our orders
Speaker 3: to go to Afghansian. I remember I was, it's excited
Speaker 3: to go to war. This is what I came to do.
Speaker 1: He had been trained for battle, which is exactly what
Speaker 1: he wanted, though if you asked him just a couple
Speaker 1: of years earlier, he wasn't sure what he wanted. Back then,
Speaker 1: he was working as a sandwich artist at the subway
Speaker 1: shop near his family home in Iowa.
Speaker 3: I was about to graduate high school and I didn't
Speaker 3: have a plan. And I heard a radio commercial come on,
Speaker 3: and I said, come on down. See the recruiter, get
Speaker 3: a free T shirt. I want a free T shirt.
Speaker 3: Who doesn't want a free T shirt? I'm working at somebody.
Speaker 3: I want a free T shirt. Of course I want
Speaker 3: a T shirt.
Speaker 1: It was the right radio ad at exactly the right time.
Speaker 1: Sal went to the recruiting center for the T shirt,
Speaker 1: but he came out of it with a life plan.
Speaker 3: This is my chance. I can make a difference, and
Speaker 3: I can do it everywhere, but not in Cedar Rappids, Iowa.
Speaker 3: And at that time I was ready to go somewhere else.
Speaker 3: The Army's gonna take me everywhere except for here. So
Speaker 3: I'll just jump on this bandwagon and see where it goes.
Speaker 1: He decided to join the one hundred and seventy third Airborne,
Speaker 1: which meant he would potentially be jumping out of a
Speaker 1: plane straight into combat and.
Speaker 3: Eighteen years old. I don't know much, but the Army
Speaker 3: said I could spit, I could swear, I could shoot guns,
Speaker 3: and they'll pay him one hundred and fifty bucks extra
Speaker 3: to jump out of planes. Patriotism slash one hundred and
Speaker 3: fifty dollars to jump out of a plane A month.
Speaker 3: I'm in.
Speaker 1: But once Sal got to Afghanistan. He realized that combat
Speaker 1: wasn't quite what his eighteen year old self had pictured.
Speaker 1: Sal and First Platoons spent most of their time at
Speaker 1: Ford Operating Base. Below. It was in southern Afghanistan. It
Speaker 1: was an isolated spot, nestled in the valley between the
Speaker 1: soaring peaks of the Hindu Kush Mountains, surrounded by almond
Speaker 1: and apricot orchard. But Below itself was like most of
Speaker 1: the bases in Afghanistan, pretty bleak, a mud hut turned
Speaker 1: into a makeshift fortress, guys sleeping eight to a room,
Speaker 1: and constant attacks from the Taliban. Sal and the rest
Speaker 1: of the soldiers got really close, really fast. That'll happen
Speaker 1: when you're living in such tight quarters far from anyone else.
Speaker 3: You only get thirty four other people to talk to,
Speaker 3: So you see these people seven days a week. There's
Speaker 3: no one else you can talk to or be with.
Speaker 3: No psychiatrists. Gets as steep as we got on the
Speaker 3: side of the mountain. We just because we had nothing
Speaker 3: else to.
Speaker 1: Do, nothing to do but talk and joke and go
Speaker 1: on patrols and get shot at, which meant watching your friends,
Speaker 1: your brothers get hurt.
Speaker 3: It didn't take long into my first deployment into Afghanistan
Speaker 3: before I really your emotions in war are a lot
Speaker 3: different than your emotions watching war on TV. And death
Speaker 3: is real and the hardships are painful. It's not just
Speaker 3: painful to watch. That's truly painful on you and your boys.
Speaker 1: Sal was still all in even after he got shot
Speaker 1: through the leg in a firefight, but slowly his gung
Speaker 1: ho attitude was beginning to change. About three months into
Speaker 1: his deployment, and Id took out a humpy, killing four
Speaker 1: soldiers and maiming a fifth. They were all members of
Speaker 1: Sal's company, Company B. They were men he knew. Sal
Speaker 1: went to the bomb site to help clean up, and
Speaker 1: seeing the bodies was well traumatic for everyone. And just
Speaker 1: a few days later, a different squad from bey Lowe
Speaker 1: was out on patrol and one of those men, a lieutenant,
Speaker 1: was shot and killed.
Speaker 3: We lost one of our lieutenants. And now that's five
Speaker 3: in like a span of a week. And I was
Speaker 3: already having a tough time kind of stomach and what
Speaker 3: happened to the first four and my team years sent
Speaker 3: me down. He goes, this is it. This is exactly
Speaker 3: what war is. It's not going to get any better.
Speaker 3: And that was when I truly felt that I was
Speaker 3: in the army. I was an emotional, hurt, straught alone paying,
Speaker 3: which I hadn't felt before. Three months into Afghanistan, I
Speaker 3: was no longer excited. I had more of a zest
Speaker 3: than ever to do my job. But it wasn't because
Speaker 3: I was excited to do it. It was because this
Speaker 3: is what we trained to do, and all the excitement
Speaker 3: was gone.
Speaker 1: Sal made it through the rest of that deployment, fighting
Speaker 1: and sustaining and doing his job, and after a year
Speaker 1: he returned to the base in Italy. Finally he would
Speaker 1: have a break from combat, and even better, he'd get
Speaker 1: to see his girlfriend, Jennifer Mueller. They had met at
Speaker 1: the very start of Sal's time in Italy before he
Speaker 1: deployed to Afghanistan. Back then, she was a student from
Speaker 1: the University of Iowa doing a semester abroad. Now Jen
Speaker 1: had graduated and moved to an apartment near the base.
Speaker 1: The two were happy, thinking about the future, and then
Speaker 1: Sal got the news Company B was returning to Afghanistan.
Speaker 1: Sal's attention shifted from his future a future with Jen,
Speaker 1: back to his buddies in first Platoon. That brotherhood of soldiers.
Speaker 1: He knew he had to be his best for them,
Speaker 1: and his best was going to have to be pretty great,
Speaker 1: because soon enough the Company B was on their way
Speaker 1: to the Corngau Valley. When sal arrived in the Corangaul
Speaker 1: Valley in May of two thousand and seven, he knew
Speaker 1: immediately that this deployment would be different.
Speaker 3: It was like nothing that I had never seen in
Speaker 3: Afghanistan before.
Speaker 1: The valley itself looked lush and green, beautiful, even peaceful.
Speaker 1: It wasn't.
Speaker 3: It was all so harsh terrain. Even the little bushes
Speaker 3: were sharp, all the little animals bit or stung or
Speaker 3: poisoned in some way.
Speaker 1: The steep hillsides were covered in dense brush, which provided
Speaker 1: the ideal hiding spots for insurgents, and they were well
Speaker 1: armed and itching for a fight.
Speaker 3: We were at the bottom of a valley with mountains
Speaker 3: just cheer straight, straight up and down on every single side,
Speaker 3: and every single place you're going to fight, you are
Speaker 3: at the bottom and they are at the top, and
Speaker 3: you are open and they are covered.
Speaker 1: There was literally no safe place to be an American
Speaker 1: in the Corngall Valley. The roughly thirty five men of
Speaker 1: Sal's platoon lived at fire Base Vegas. It was a
Speaker 1: mud hut about the size of a three car garage,
Speaker 1: no running water, spotty electricity, and very little protection from
Speaker 1: constant enemy fire. For a shower, a hot meal, or
Speaker 1: a phone call home, the guys would have to go
Speaker 1: all the way back to the main base corn Gall outpost.
Speaker 1: It was a multi hour walk where they'd be shot
Speaker 1: at all the way, so they didn't go that often,
Speaker 1: which meant Sal couldn't talk to Jen very much.
Speaker 2: She remembers it well, I remember the two months for
Speaker 2: I heard from him, and then it was every month,
Speaker 2: and when you get a phone call, it's fifteen minutes.
Speaker 2: When a month or two goes by fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1: Is like a second. But at least Sal was there
Speaker 1: with people he adored, the guys he thought of as family.
Speaker 1: One was Josh Brennan, who'd been a football player back
Speaker 1: in high school in Oregon. He was all endurance and toughness,
Speaker 1: though he also had a way of making everyone around
Speaker 1: him feel at ease. He was alpha team leader and
Speaker 1: Sal was Bravo team leader.
Speaker 3: I'd been with Brennan for maybe four years, and four
Speaker 3: years with roughly thirty five guys. So in the Army
Speaker 3: everyone gets to be your buddy and you'll love him
Speaker 3: like a brother, because that's how it's set up.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Eric Ga Yadado was their squad leader, smart and
Speaker 1: cool headed, a perfectionist, and a brilliant fighter. Their medic
Speaker 1: was Hugo Mendoza. At twenty nine, he was a decade
Speaker 1: older than many of the guys at Vegas. He was
Speaker 1: from Texas and had joined the Army to take care
Speaker 1: of people as a first responder. Brennan, Gayadro, Sal and
Speaker 1: Mendoza were really close, but still it was hard. The
Speaker 1: men had to wear helmets and body armor all the time.
Speaker 1: They'd risk getting shot at, even going to the latrines.
Speaker 1: They would hike out for daily patrols, and each one
Speaker 1: was slow and hard up steep trails covered in loose shale.
Speaker 1: One wrong step and you could fall to your death.
Speaker 1: Sal felt his body start to fall apart from the
Speaker 1: lack of sleep and the stress of non stop fighting.
Speaker 3: We get shot at every single day, sometimes multiple times
Speaker 3: a day.
Speaker 1: And then in late October of two thousand and seven,
Speaker 1: the men were told were going on a new kind
Speaker 1: of combat mission. They called it Rock Avalanche. It was
Speaker 1: going to be the most ambitious operation the Corngall Valley
Speaker 1: had seen, deploying four separate companies at the same time,
Speaker 1: some four hundred men along with their support. The goal
Speaker 1: was to move directly into Taliban strongholds. They'd look for
Speaker 1: weapons and try to shut down travel routes for the insurgents.
Speaker 1: Rock Avalanche would begin the night of October nineteenth. That night,
Speaker 1: for the first time, Sal heard his captain wish them luck,
Speaker 1: and he knew that meant they needed.
Speaker 3: Rock Avalanche took us to where the bad guys were.
Speaker 3: That was our job.
Speaker 1: Sal's company went to the southwestern part of the valley,
Speaker 1: traveling by helicopter. Their destination was a Taliban stronghold through
Speaker 1: which weapons and money flowed in and out of the
Speaker 1: Corngall Valley. It was like striking at the head of
Speaker 1: the snake.
Speaker 3: We got in some contact for a couple times each day,
Speaker 3: you know, maybe four or five gun fights, usually small
Speaker 3: arms RPGs.
Speaker 1: And then on October twenty third, three men from Company
Speaker 1: B were shot, one fatally. So in the very week
Speaker 1: hours of the twenty fifth, Sal and the rest of
Speaker 1: first Platoon went to support Second Platoon, which was going
Speaker 1: to a village near the shooting. In the four days
Speaker 1: of the mission, the men had slept fewer than ten
Speaker 1: hours total. First platoon marched for two or three hours
Speaker 1: until they reached their assigned position around five a m.
Speaker 1: It was a spot called Hancho Hill. They would stay
Speaker 1: there while second platoon worked its way through the village
Speaker 1: trying to get information about what had happened at the shooting.
Speaker 3: Second latoon was going to go into the village, and
Speaker 3: then we were going to be on one of the
Speaker 3: side weeks over watching the village so if anything anyone
Speaker 3: started coming from the outside to come and attack them
Speaker 3: in the village, we already have the high ground.
Speaker 1: Sal's platoon, that's first platoon, stayed there all day, not
Speaker 1: talking much, trying to keep vigilant, knowing that the insurgents
Speaker 1: were close.
Speaker 3: And we sat there twelve hours, fourteen hours, just watching
Speaker 3: and waiting, and the whole time we're thinking, okay, somewhere here,
Speaker 3: there should be somewhere down here.
Speaker 1: What they didn't realize was that a group of at
Speaker 1: least a dozen enemy fighters had crept up behind them
Speaker 1: and were waiting patiently for First Platoon to start moving
Speaker 1: back towards Corungall outpost. There was only one path they
Speaker 1: could take.
Speaker 3: The sun went down, the commander said we're going to
Speaker 3: pull out. We'll go back. There was probably a two
Speaker 3: and a half hour walk back to the Corngall outpost.
Speaker 1: There were eighteen men from first Platoon walking in single file.
Speaker 1: Sergeant Brennan was out in front. He shouldn't even have
Speaker 1: been there. His time in Afghanistan had been up a
Speaker 1: month earlier, but his contract had been extended. That was
Speaker 1: very common at this point in the war, so there
Speaker 1: he was walking point as usual. It went Brennan, then
Speaker 1: Specialist Frank eck Roede, then Sergeant Gay Gadolo, then sal.
Speaker 3: Sun was down, but the moon was big, and that
Speaker 3: moon really does make a just a huge amount of
Speaker 3: difference in what you can and can't see.
Speaker 1: They hadn't gone very far when out of nowhere all
Speaker 1: hell broke loose.
Speaker 3: I've never seen before or since anything like what what happened.
Speaker 3: It was basically I don't know the number of shots.
Speaker 3: Absolutely everything, every single inch of the air in front
Speaker 3: of us, behind us was filled with tracers.
Speaker 1: They had walked into an ambush. The enemy had arranged
Speaker 1: themselves in an L shaped barrier. One short line of
Speaker 1: soldiers directly in front of first platoon, and a longer
Speaker 1: line along their left flank. It's a classic tactic meant
Speaker 1: to create the most carnage and the shortest amount of time.
Speaker 3: You really can't protect yourself from an ambush like that.
Speaker 3: You just hope you don't walk into it. But the
Speaker 3: way the train dictated, there was only one way we
Speaker 3: could go down.
Speaker 1: What happened next was total chaos. More tracers than there
Speaker 1: were stars in the sky, the sound of bullets coming
Speaker 1: from extremely close range.
Speaker 3: Within the first five seconds, so I think pretty much
Speaker 3: everyone had been shot somewhere.
Speaker 1: The Americans were standing in the open and the enemy
Speaker 1: was behind the rocks and trees. Essentially there was no cover.
Speaker 3: A few shrubs and bushes, but there's nothing that's gonna
Speaker 3: stop a bullet.
Speaker 1: Sal got shot in the rib cage. Fortunately the impact
Speaker 1: was absorbed by his protective vest. Another bullet went through
Speaker 1: the assault pack that was over his shoulder, shattering the
Speaker 1: weapon there. They had been in regular contact with enemy
Speaker 1: fighters almost daily over the past six months, but this
Speaker 1: was different, way more intense. Thousands of bullets ripped the
Speaker 1: air from both sides. Then Sal saw guy out of
Speaker 1: the get hit.
Speaker 3: So I looked towards my leader, sar uncl Ardo, and
Speaker 3: I just saw his head twitch and it wasn't like
Speaker 3: what was that twitch? It was like something just hit
Speaker 3: his head twitch and he dropped.
Speaker 1: Sal's heart sank. He knew what that kind of head
Speaker 1: twitch meant. He ran to Guyautlo through the bullets. When
Speaker 1: he reached him, he saw immediately Guy Outada was alive.
Speaker 1: The bullet had only grazed his skull. Guy Gadado scrambled
Speaker 1: to his feet and he and Sal ran back and
Speaker 1: jumped into a shallow ditch. They threw grenades, using the
Speaker 1: explosions as covered to run forward, shooting at the enemy line.
Speaker 1: Flashes of fire answered back from the trees. They threw
Speaker 1: their grenades again, charging ahead, moving up towards ek Road
Speaker 1: and Brennan. Finally they got to Ekro. He had been
Speaker 1: shot twice in the leg, but he kept returning fire
Speaker 1: until his gun had jammed.
Speaker 3: When we went up, we saw that Croad and Nechrow
Speaker 3: was on the ground and he said he'd been shot,
Speaker 3: and he said that Brenna said he was shot as well,
Speaker 3: and he's somewhere up ahead. I can hear this.
Speaker 1: As I'm running, sal knew Ekroed had Guyautao with him
Speaker 1: dressing his wound. He would be safe. There was nobody
Speaker 1: better than Gay.
Speaker 3: Gottivo, and so I just kept on running, and I
Speaker 3: thrown all my grenades. I only had three with me,
Speaker 3: and there was no more grenades, and I was already
Speaker 3: running forward.
Speaker 1: It was up to him to find his friend Brennan.
Speaker 1: He knew Brennan was in danger, but he seemed to
Speaker 1: have disappeared.
Speaker 3: And when I ran up and I couldn't. I couldn't
Speaker 3: find Brennan where he should have been. My just cut
Speaker 3: to the left and I just started going closer to
Speaker 3: the shooting. I cleared through some there was some low shrubs,
Speaker 3: and I was just running. I wasn't shooting. I was running,
Speaker 3: and I came out this part hungs my dreams.
Speaker 1: Suddenly it got quieter, and that's when he saw two
Speaker 1: people moving away away from him, carrying something.
Speaker 3: It's crazy. I don't know how anyone else got up
Speaker 3: here before me. I mean, this all happens like this,
Speaker 3: and the moon's full and so you can see, you
Speaker 3: can see very well, but I can't understand what is
Speaker 3: going on in front of me. It's I got a
Speaker 3: little bit closer, I realized what was going on. I
Speaker 3: looked back, and it's just this side of a mountain
Speaker 3: in Afghanistan, and it's almost This is a perfectly clear patch,
Speaker 3: and the moon couldn't have been any more beautiful, and
Speaker 3: life couldn't have been any scarier.
Speaker 1: Then Sal understood he was looking at two enemy soldiers,
Speaker 1: and that thing between them was a person tied by
Speaker 1: his hands and feet.
Speaker 3: Brandon, He's smarter than me, stronger than me, he's faster
Speaker 3: than me. He's a better shot than me, and that's
Speaker 3: who's getting carried away.
Speaker 1: Sal shot one of the insurgents and killed him. He
Speaker 1: dropped on the spot. Then he hit the other one,
Speaker 1: who limped away and disappeared down the cliff side. Sal
Speaker 1: ran to Josh Brennan.
Speaker 3: I grabbed Brennan, and I just turned around and ran
Speaker 3: as fast as I could back the way I just
Speaker 3: came from.
Speaker 1: He dragged Brennan to cover, hearing the bullets continued to
Speaker 1: pop and zing around him, and then once they were
Speaker 1: in a safer spot, he was able to look closely
Speaker 1: at his friend. He had multiple gunshot wounds the bottom
Speaker 1: left side of his jaw, was gone.
Speaker 3: I tried to see what's wrong with Brennan, and he's moaning,
Speaker 3: and he wasn't doing so good. But he was alive.
Speaker 3: He was still talking and I think he was shot
Speaker 3: probably about seven times, and it looked like maybe an
Speaker 3: REPG burst up on the ground, shrapnel to his face
Speaker 3: and took his a good portion of his jaw. The
Speaker 3: just complaining that he had something in his mouth, but
Speaker 3: it wasn't that he had something in his mouth, and
Speaker 3: he says didn't have his mouth.
Speaker 1: Sal started calling for medical help. None came. Where was Mendoza.
Speaker 1: Then the entire ridge began to shake. An American b
Speaker 1: one was dropping bombs. There had been bombers and Apache
Speaker 1: helicopters buzzing overhead, and now the enemy and first platoon
Speaker 1: were separated enough that they could finally fire. All that time,
Speaker 1: Sal waited with Brennan, trying to stop the bleeding, talking
Speaker 1: to him about home, trying to comfort him. Keep him alive.
Speaker 1: You'll be okay, he told them, You'll get to tell
Speaker 1: your hero stories. Brennan smiled. Eventually a metic arrived. It
Speaker 1: wasn't Mendoza. Sal wasn't sure where Mendoza was. Sal stayed
Speaker 1: with Brennan until he was loaded onto that Medovac helicopter.
Speaker 3: He took him away, and hey, Brennan was still with
Speaker 3: it when you left, and his heart rate was low,
Speaker 3: but it wasn't. It wasn't.
Speaker 1: Over All Sal could do was pick up his gear
Speaker 1: and hiked the hours back through the valley to the
Speaker 1: Corngall outpost. As he went, he played the day over
Speaker 1: and over again in his head, thinking about what he
Speaker 1: could have done differently, holding out a desperate hope that
Speaker 1: Brennan would survive. Many hours after that brutal firefight, Sao
Speaker 1: was back at base, still holding out hope, and then
Speaker 1: he heard the news his friend Josh Brennan had passed
Speaker 1: away after surgery. Mendoza had been shot in the femeral
Speaker 1: artery early in the ambush. He bled out in a
Speaker 1: ditch and died. Three other men had been airlifted out
Speaker 1: with injuries.
Speaker 3: That was bucked Ober twenty six, two thousand and seven.
Speaker 3: But still, uh, I feel like such a baby. But
Speaker 3: to me, that was my that was my hell, that
Speaker 3: was my bad day.
Speaker 1: Josh Brennan wasn't just a fellow soldier. He was SAO's
Speaker 1: closest friend, the one he had fought side by side
Speaker 1: with As Sal was reeling from what had happened, his girlfriend,
Speaker 1: Jim was thousands of miles away getting bits and pieces
Speaker 1: of information. I got a.
Speaker 2: Phone call from one of my friends and other army spouse,
Speaker 2: and she was frantic. She was crying. She told me
Speaker 2: that Brandon died, and she told me that Sal was
Speaker 2: a hero and that she didn't know when I was
Speaker 2: going to hear from him. And I heard from him,
Speaker 2: I think the next the next day or two, he
Speaker 2: called and I could tell that he wasn't doing well.
Speaker 1: Back in Iowa. Sal's parents, Rosemary and Steven, got a
Speaker 1: call as well. Their stoic son never wanted to tell
Speaker 1: them what he had seen or done. This was no different.
Speaker 1: He didn't want to talk about what happened that night,
Speaker 1: but a mom knows when to push. Sal's mom shared
Speaker 1: that moment and a tribute video.
Speaker 4: I got the phone call and he was crying, he
Speaker 4: was upset, and I said, can you tell me about it?
Speaker 4: And he said it very strong. He says, I will
Speaker 4: tell you once and I won't tell you again, and
Speaker 4: don't ask any questions.
Speaker 1: The hardest phone call he had to make was the
Speaker 1: one he made with Eric Gayadbo. The two of them
Speaker 1: called Josh Brennan's father. Sal wanted Josh's dad to know
Speaker 1: how much Brennan had meant to him. He was crying
Speaker 1: so hard it was difficult to speak, and after all
Speaker 1: those calls he had to make sense of what happened
Speaker 1: for himself.
Speaker 3: The strongest metals are forged in the hottest fires, and
Speaker 3: our hottest fire was the Corngall Valley, and that bonded
Speaker 3: us together in a way that cannot be broken.
Speaker 1: It was true, but it wasn't much comfort. What was
Speaker 1: worse was to talk about what he'd done. A few
Speaker 1: days after the ambush, Guyadolo came to talk to Sal.
Speaker 3: You said, you're gonna get put in for a middle.
Speaker 1: Of honor whatever. Guy out of the thought Sal's reaction
Speaker 1: would be. He had to be surprised by what it
Speaker 1: actually was.
Speaker 3: I was pissed. You're gonna congratulate me, You're gonna pat
Speaker 3: me on the back and say thanks. Stupid. You're absolutely
Speaker 3: stupid if you think this is a good idea.
Speaker 1: But the men of first Platoon were brothers, and just
Speaker 1: as Sal had their backs, they had his. Eric Guayadlo
Speaker 1: remembers the long conversations he had with Sal, trying to
Speaker 1: help him make sense of the honor that might be
Speaker 1: coming his way.
Speaker 5: Me and him plenty of nights.
Speaker 1: You know, Jay, I don't want this.
Speaker 3: You know.
Speaker 5: I didn't do anything more than the rest of you.
Speaker 5: You know, I went out there because Josh was my friend.
Speaker 5: I went out there and save my friend. He would
Speaker 5: have done the same exact thing for me.
Speaker 1: Eric was trying to get him to see his actions
Speaker 1: for what they were, acts of courage of heroism.
Speaker 5: And I told Sal, I was like, I noticed, how
Speaker 5: I know? Wait what you don't understand? What you did
Speaker 5: was pretty crazy. You know, you single handley stopped the fight.
Speaker 5: You stopped them from taking a soldier.
Speaker 1: But Sal didn't see it.
Speaker 3: We all did what we felt we were supposed to
Speaker 3: do because that's how we were trained. No one did
Speaker 3: anything special. Every single one of us were fighting for
Speaker 3: our absolute life.
Speaker 1: Sal was supposed to be said back to Italy on
Speaker 1: November third, two thousand and seven, but due to his
Speaker 1: contract getting extended, he didn't leave Afghanistan until July of
Speaker 1: two thousand and eight. When he got back to Italy,
Speaker 1: Jen was waiting for him, so were nightmares. PTSD. The
Speaker 1: effects of being shot at constantly for fifteen months were
Speaker 1: not easy to shake. Sal tried not to talk about
Speaker 1: the events of October twenty fifth. Doing so made him
Speaker 1: feel sick and terrible, so he just didn't. He took
Speaker 1: a desk job, relieved to be off of the front lines.
Speaker 1: He and Jen got engaged in July of two thousand
Speaker 1: and nine and married the following year. Life was quiet
Speaker 1: and Sal was happier, And then came that phone call
Speaker 1: in his office, the voice of the President on the line.
Speaker 1: Sal would have to finally come to terms with that
Speaker 1: day and do it in the public eye. Within a
Speaker 1: few months of that call, Sal Junta was at the
Speaker 1: White House for his Medal of Honor ceremony. Nearly fifty
Speaker 1: soldiers who had served with him in Italy and Afghanistan
Speaker 1: were in attendance. The families of Josh Brennan and Hugo
Speaker 1: Mendoza were there too. Clearly everyone knew how reluctant Sao
Speaker 1: was to be labeled a hero. President Barack Obama certainly did.
Speaker 6: He'll tell you that he didn't do anything special, that
Speaker 6: he was just doing his job, that any of his
Speaker 6: brothers in the unit would do the same thing. Staff
Speaker 6: Sergeant Juna, your courage prevented the capture of an American
Speaker 6: soldier and brought that soldier back to his family. You
Speaker 6: may believe that you don't deserve this honor, but it
Speaker 6: was your fellow soldiers who recommended you for it.
Speaker 1: Something started to slowly shift for Sal if he couldn't
Speaker 1: let himself take credit for so what had happened during
Speaker 1: Rock Avalanche? What could he do with this honor? How
Speaker 1: could he live with the version of himself that he
Speaker 1: didn't really recognize?
Speaker 3: As I felt this light silk ribbon go around my neck,
Speaker 3: I felt the weight of the sacrifices of those two men.
Speaker 1: So he made a decision. He would accept the medal
Speaker 1: as a way to keep their memory alive. He would
Speaker 1: devote himself to doing better, to being better in honor
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 3: Because if I got to do it, I'm going to
Speaker 3: do it for them. And there's nothing they wouldn't do
Speaker 3: for me, So how could I not do this for them.
Speaker 1: This is not to say that Sal feels any better
Speaker 1: about that day in October of two thousand and seven.
Speaker 1: He still wonders, how can I be so great if
Speaker 1: I allowed two of my friends to get killed. But
Speaker 1: he can live with that feeling if it means honoring
Speaker 1: his friends. He understands that the flip side of his
Speaker 1: heroism is their ultimate sacrifice. The military pulled out of
Speaker 1: the Corangall Valley in April of twenty ten. They had
Speaker 1: never really want anything there. Sal left the army the
Speaker 1: following year. He went back to college, and he and
Speaker 1: Jen are now parents of two, a girl and a boy.
Speaker 1: He wrote a memoir about his experiences called Living with Honor.
Speaker 1: We've read a lot of books by Medal of Honor
Speaker 1: recipients and veterans in general, and let me tell you,
Speaker 1: sALS is incredible, honest and thoughtful and funny and intense.
Speaker 1: Just like Sal, It too, is a way for him
Speaker 1: to memorialize his friends, to tell their story. This is
Speaker 1: how Sal made peace with the Medal of Honor, the
Speaker 1: same way he fought, by doing it for someone else.
Speaker 3: It stays at my house at night, put it on
Speaker 3: my neck when I need to. But this is not mine,
Speaker 3: This is not for me. This represents so much more.
Speaker 3: This represents not just my boys, not just Brandan, not
Speaker 3: just Mendoza, or not all the guys who have been wounded,
Speaker 3: not all the people who have suffered, not the families
Speaker 3: that will pay the price for this country. It's not
Speaker 3: for any one of those people.
Speaker 1: It's for all of those people. And it's more than that.
Speaker 1: Sal doesn't just wear the metal for people in the
Speaker 1: military or their families. He wears it to honor the
Speaker 1: service of all Americans who were just doing their jobs
Speaker 1: like he did, supporting each other and weighs big and small,
Speaker 1: trying to make a difference. He wears it for all
Speaker 1: of us. He wears it for you. Medal of Honor.
Speaker 1: Stories of Courage is written by Meredith Rollins and produced
Speaker 1: by Meredith Rollins and Jess Shane. Our editor is Ben
Speaker 1: Nadaf Hoffrey. Sound design and additional music by Jake Gorski.
Speaker 1: Our executive producer is Constanza Gayardo. Fact checking by Arthur
Speaker 1: Gomperts and original music by Eric Phillips. Production support by
Speaker 1: Suzanne Gabber. Special thanks to the Congressional Medal of Honor Society.
Speaker 1: We also want to hear from you. Send us your
Speaker 1: personal story of courage or highlight someone else's bravery. Just
Speaker 1: email us at Medal of Honor at Pushkin do f
Speaker 1: you might hear your stories on future episodes of Metal
Speaker 1: of Honor or see them on our social channels at
Speaker 1: pushkin Pods. I'm your host, JR. Martinez