Salvatore Augustine Giunta was born on January 21, 1985 in Clinton, Iowa. He is the oldest of three children born to Steve and Rose.
“He was born on a very cold day; I think we hit 40 below. We couldn’t get the car started, and Steve kind of went into oh my gosh the car won’t start and you’re in labor,” said Rose. The car did eventually start, and Sal was born without complications at the hospital. Growing up Sal always had a lot of energy and was very athletic. He played football and was known to be a fast runner. His brother Mario said, “You wanted him on your side because that was the usually the winning side, he saw things through until they are finished.” Katie, Sal’s sister, remembers, “He was always really popular, he always had a lot of friends, he was always doing school activities. He was Charlie Brown in the play. He was always really caring and really protective of me, a really good guy.”
Sal graduated high school and joined the Army. He said his inspiration came one night when he was working at Subway and a recruiter appeared on television and said they were giving away free t-shirts. Sal said, “I’m a sucker for a free t-shirt.”
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