More medals

TO THE WHITE HOUSE for finally awarding the Medal of Honor to a living hero. Army Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta braved heavy enemy fire to pull one wounded comrade to safety, then engaged two insurgents to rescue another comrade from potential capture. Like other living MoH recipients before him, Giunta is as modest as he is heroic: “By no means did I do anything that others wouldn’t have done,” he told reporters. But there is more than humility in that statement. Others have acted with similar selfless disregard while looking after their comrades in arms, both in Iraq and Afghanistan. Yet through nine years of war, only eight Medals of Honor have been awarded, all posthumously until Giunta. While the process for selecting Medal of Honor recipients must remain rigorous and exacting, it’s time for leaders to put aside whatever concerns are preventing them from honoring those whose extraordinary acts of bravery are also deserving of this medal.