Medal of Honor Recipient SSG Salvatore Giunta Selected as Warrior Games 2011 Torchbearer

By Jim Wenzel, WTC Stratcom

Medal of Honor recipient SSG Salvatore Giunta, shown here at the New York Stock Exchange, will serve as torchbearer at the opening of this month’s Warrior Games.

Medal of Honor recipient SSG Salvatore Giunta of Fort Collins, CO, has been selected to be the torchbearer for this year’s Warrior Games Opening Ceremony at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, CO, on May 16, 2011.

The competition, which is a joint effort between the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) and the Department of Defense, will take place on May 16-21, 2011. The Warrior Games will feature 200 wounded, ill, and injured servicemembers from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Coast Guard, Air Force, and Army Special Operations Command. Competitors will compete in shooting, swimming, archery, track and field, cycling, sitting volleyball, and wheelchair basketball.

Giunta, the first living Medal of Honor recipient since the Vietnam War, was awarded the nation’s highest military award for heroism by President Barack Obama at the White House on November 16, 2010. Guinta received the award for repeatedly exposing himself to enemy fire in order to save American lives and for rescuing a fellow Soldier from the hands of the Taliban.

Although he is very humble about the honor and has often claimed that he is an “average” Soldier simply doing what any other would have done in his place, no other Soldier is better suited for bearing the Warrior Games torch. “It is an honor to have SSG Giunta light the torch at the opening ceremony,” said Warrior Transition Command (WTC) Commander BG Darryl A. Williams. “His heroic action is an inspiration to the wounded, ill, and injured competitors that he represents.”

The Warrior Games is a way for wounded, ill, and injured athletes to push themselves beyond their limits and to recognize that with exceptional effort and determination they can achieve success in competition and in other areas of their lives. The Warrior Games is also an opportunity to showcase adaptive sports programs at Warrior Transition Units (WTUs) and wounded warrior units within all the service branches to demonstrate that physical activity, especially sports, is an important component of healing and rehabilitation. To learn more about the Warrior Games, please visit the Warrior Games Web page on the Warrior Transition Command website.