Army Sgt. Salvatore Giunta will be presented the Medal of Honor today in a ceremony at 2 p.m. EST. Guinta is the first living recipient of the Medal of Honor since Vietnam. Politics Daily has a great write-up of the details behind Guinta's brave service:

Three years ago and 7,000 miles away, on a cold, rocky mountainside in Afghanistan, Sal Giunta fought inside a hailstorm of bullets to save his buddies. Today, a nation that can scarcely imagine the circumstances of his heroism, or share the motivation for it, awards him its highest military tribute, the Medal of Honor.

At the White House on Tuesday, President Barack Obama will award Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta the distinctive gold star with a neckband of blue with a field of white stars, for "great personal bravery'' in combat. Giunta's wife, Jennifer, and his parents, Steven and Rosemary Giunta, will be present at the ceremony.

Giunta, 25, joined the Army seven years ago on an impulse. He was working nights at a Subway in Hiawatha, Iowa, and heard a recruiting jingle promising a free T-shirt. In a flash he'd gone through basic and advanced infantry training and was sent to Battle Company, 503^rd Infantry Regiment, 173^rd Airborne Brigade, and on to two combat tours in Afghanistan totaling 27 months. Four of his buddies were killed early in his first deployment, blown up by an IED, a roadside bomb. On his second deployment, Battle Co. was sent into the Korengal Valley, a small (six miles long and a mile wide) but deadly strip of steep, mountainous terrain where American troops were regularly chewed up by Taliban insurgents.

Read the rest at Politics Daily.

The ceremony will be streamed live here.

ABC News Reports on Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta: