WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Tuesday is awarding the Medal of Honor to an Army staff sergeant who placed himself in the line of fire in Afghanistan to save two comrades.
The soldier, Salvatore Giunta (jee-UN'-tah), is the first living service member from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to receive the nation's highest military decoration.
The Army says that on Oct. 25, 2007, Giunta was serving as a rifle team leader in the Korengal Valley in Afghanistan when an insurgent ambush split his squad into two groups.
The 25-year-old soldier from Hiawatha, Iowa, was under fire when he pulled a fellow soldier back to cover and rescued another who was being carried away by two insurgents.
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