Sergeant Salvatore Giunta – Medal of Honor 10/25/2007

Hey Taliban man

chase my blues away.

We ain’t in the mood

to play with you dude,

‘cause you ambushed,

shot and killed

Sergeant Larry Rougle

just yesterday.

So, hey Taliban man –

What’s on your mind today?

Soon, the it began to fly.

Air power – thunder and

lightening

lit up the sky.

First platoon on Honcho

Hill was getting hit.

The captain yelled

“Drop everything,

cross that river,

help your brothers!”

And to a man they did.

Sergeant Joshua Brennan

took the lead, ran ahead

up the Afghan path, then

took six lethal bullets lead.

He was barely alive,

Medic Hugo Mendoza

was already dead, when

Sergeant Eric Gallardo and

Sergeant Salvatore Giunta

saw Brennan and

Specialist Eckrode ahead.

Franklin Eckrode was saved

but the Taliban was dragging

wounded Josh Brennan away.

Giunta lunged up the trail

and thought “Who the hell

is up there?” While firing hard

at the Taliban man,

shooting deep into his face,

which transformed into

a grotesque Halloween

death mask,

with brains dripping

all over the place.

Brennan was still breathing

and moving, so Giunta pulled

him into the ditch.

Out of the sky dropped a hoist

and a medic with a trach

which Giunta kept squeezing

to keep Brennan breathing

until there was nothing,

only silence and fidgeting.

Salvatore lived on to say –

“All my feelings

are with my friends,

and they are getting smaller.

I have sweat more, cried more,

bled more in this country

than my own.

These people won’t leave this

valley. They have been here

before I could fathom

an Afghanistan.”

Hey Taliban man

Chase my blues away.

You may expunge the bodies

of our faithful comrades,

but you can’t slay the souls

of the Sky Soldiers,

who remain with us

forever and always. Amen.