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Living Medal of Honor Recipient: Staff Sergeant Sal Giunta of Hiawatha

Host Ben Kieffer talks with Army Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta of Hiawatha. Later this year Sal Giunta will become the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. There have only been eight recipients of the military's highest honor in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Giunta, who serves with the 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team, exposed himself to enemy fire in October 2007, when an insurgent force ambush split his squad into two groups. Later, Ben speaks with Rabbi Jay Holstein, the J.J. Mallon Teaching Chair of Judaic Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of Iowa. In classes, Holstein teaches about the degree to which heroic interests have been with us since the dawn of recorded history.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River