On November 16, 2010, Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta of the 173rd Airborne became the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War. His actions occured in Afghanistan’s Korengal valley during the deployment chronicled in the movie ‘Restrepo
‘. This fourteen-minute video tells his story.
The Sal Giunta Story from SebastianJunger/TimHetherington on Vimeo.
Since the dawn of modern warfare, the best way to stay alive in the face of incoming fire has been to take cover behind a wall. But thanks to a game-changing “revolutionary” rifle, the U.S. Army has made that tactic dead on arrival. Now the enemy can run, but he can’t hide.
After years of development, the U.S. Army has unleashed a new weapon in Afghanistan — the XM25 Counter Defilade Target Engagement System, a high-tech rifle that can be programmed so that its 25-mm. ammunition detonates either in front of or behind a target, meaning it can be fired just above a wall before it explodes and kills the enemy.
It also has a range of roughly 2,300 feet — nearly the length of eight football fields — making it possible to fire at targets well past the range of the rifles and carbines that most soldiers carry today.
Filmmaker and P-51 Mustang Pilot Chris Woods
has put together a wonderful film that captures the emotional reunion between a humble WWII Mustang ace (Jim Brooks) and the historic plane he thought he’d never see again.
Inspired by the flood of memories triggered by this unimaginable encounter with a long lost friend, the 88-year old pilot finally breaks his silence, sharing his stories and experiences of war with the grandchildren who never thought they’d hear them.
A teacher asked her class to find out a story from their parents with a moral at the end of it. The next day the kids came back and began to tell their stories.
“Jimmy do you have a story to share?”
“Yes miss – my daddy told me a story about my Uncle Willie. Uncle Willie was a pilot in the Air Force in the first Gulf War and his plane got hit. He had to bail out over enemy territory and all he had was a small flask of whiskey, a pistol and a survival knife. He drank the whiskey on the way down so it wouldn’t fall into the hands of the enemy, then he parachuted right into the middle of 20 enemy troops. He shot 15 of them with the gun until it ran out of bullets, killed four more with the knife until the blade broke, then he killed the last one with his bare hands.”
“Wow”, said the teacher. “What kind of moral did your daddy teach you from that?”
“Stay away from Uncle Willie when he’s been drinking.”