Medal of Honor winner SSG Sal Giunta — and thoughts about the president bestowing that honor

I want to send you to two posts at Blackfive, since they go together. The first post has an interview with SSG Sal Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor winner in the post 9/11 era. They are both interesting and moving.

When Matt sent the email giving the heads up about the post, I fired off a series of questions right back at him:  Does it matter to the recipient the presidential hand from which the Medal comes?  Is it more meaningful if it comes from a Bush, who supports the troops and the mission, than if it comes from an Obama, who doesn’t?  Or does the honor of the Medal exist entirely independent of the presidential administration?  The latter should be true, but I wonder if it is.

It turns out, I’m not the first to have had those thoughts.  Deebow, who blogs at Blackfive, also wondered about whether the president matters, or if the award stands on its own.  Read what he has to say.  I agree with him.  Do you?

Let me just add that I am delighted that Giunta won the Medal of Honor, not only because he so clearly deserved it, but because he is alive.  I want to get away from the modern mentality that seems to say that the only good hero is a dead hero.