Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta is awarded the Medal of Honor. Vanity Fair interview with Staff Sgt. Guinta.

What went through your head when you heard about [being awarded the Medal of Honor]?

“Fuck you,” I said. It sounds really awesome in theory, but what’s it worth? Brennan? Mendoza? No. I did what I did because in the scheme of painting the picture of that ambush, that was just my brush stroke. That’s not above and beyond. I didn’t take the biggest brush stroke, and it wasn’t the most important brush stroke. Hearing the Medal of Honor is like a slap in the face. I don’t think you know what I did. I didn’t do shit.

You’ll get asked a lot about bravery. What is bravery to you? How would you define it?

Bravery to me is doing something that doesn’t necessarily have to be done, doing it full heartedly, accepting it no matter what consequence comes from it, because it really does need to be done. Everyone out there is brave. Don’t have to be in Afghanistan.

By your own definition, it’s brave, what you did out there.

I was one person being brave in a group of a whole bunch of people that were being just as brave. Everything had the same thing to lose: their friends and themselves. I guarantee, no one thought about that out there. Bravery gets thrown around a lot. I served in Battle Company Second of the 503rd with the bravest men I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’m proud to say that.

What does the Medal symbolize for you?

I want to stress the fact that this is the nation’s highest honor. Awesome. And it’s given to me, but just as much as me, every single person that I’ve been with deserves to wear it—they are just as much of me as I am. This isn’t a one-man show. I’m here because someone picked me. I hope that everyone around me can share in whatever pride that comes from it. They deserve that pride.

The man’s humility is greater than his bravery.

And I think Farker “JungleBoogie” said it best:

“When asked by CBS’s Lara Logan what kind of soldier he was, Sgt Giunta replied: “I’m average. I’m mediocre… I don’t think I did anything that anyone else I was with wouldn’t have done. I was in a position to do it. That was what needed to be done. So that’s what I did.”

What an impressive fellow.

The contrast between this man, a humble and courageous infantryman walking through the Valley of Death, and the self-important, preening, corrupt gasbag politicians who send these guys into harms way, could not be more stark.