When Staff Sgt. Salvatore Giunta was awarded the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor in combat, it renewed the debate about why the U.S. military has only awarded four Medals of Honor in the past decade of fighting in Afghanistan and four in the war in Iraq. During the Vietnam War, 246 Medals of Honor were awarded.

Some speculate that the climate has become so political that the medal recipients must be so thoroughly vetted to avoid any partisan attacks. Others point out that the awards are usually nominated by higher-ranking officers – in other words, people who weren‘t there on the battlefield.

The most common way to be nominated for a Medal of Honor is through the chain of command. Otherwise a member of Congress can nominate a service member, usually at the request of someone else.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said one of the main reasons why the Medal of Honor has been awarded so infrequently is that warfare has dramatically changed since Vietnam.

“I think part of the reason is the nature of war today, in the sense that, particularly in Afghanistan, our enemies generally use weapons at a distance from us. The improvised explosive devices have cause 60 percent of our casualties. So as a proportion, there’s less hand-to-hand or in-close combat than there has been in previous wars,” Gates said.

While that’s true, Matt Larsen, who created the Army Combatives School at Fort Benning, Ga., explains that there’s plenty of hand-to-hand, or close quarter, combat happening in Afghanistan.

“At the beginning of the war, we used to think the way hand-to-hand combat would happen would be because of a malfunction,” he said, such as being out of ammunition or having your weapon jam.

“The way it typically happens now is you go into a room, there’s somebody standing there with their hands up. You don’t know what’s in the door behind him. You have to take charge of it. And let’s say you grab him – at that point, he might decide he’s not going to do what you want, or he’s trying to get a pistol out from under his shirt,” Larsen said.

And in Iraq, U.S. troops were much more likely to engage in close combat.

“Especially in Iraq, there was even more – you’d go into a building, you’re in the room with the person. Things don’t always go right.,” Larsen said. “It’s the nature of the fighting. In other words, when you’re in an urban conflict, by nature you’re fighting in buildings.”

“When you’re searching for people, the bad guys are smart. They don’t look like a bad guys,” Larsen said.

Even though wars are fought differently now, but there’s still close combat.

“Imagine that when you’re in a fight in previous wars, you might be engaged, hundreds against hundreds in open terrain,” Larsen said. “Now you might be out with eight guys, that’s more likely.”

Soldiers and Marines are trained in hand-to-hand combat and close quarters combat — and while IEDs are on the rise and many firefights take place from fixed positions, there is plenty of close combat happening in Afghanistan.

“It happens at a real low level,” said Larsen. “When you’re in a building [such as a house, or a room], the senior guy in charge might be a corporal. It’s not like there’s a company commander pushing his forces.”

Staff Sgt. Giunta and his fellow soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team know that all too well. The story of the battle that took place on Oct. 25, 2007 in the Korengal Valley is gripping.

Sgt. Josh Brennan, who did not survive the ambush, is on point. He is hit immediately and goes down. When Giunta reaches him, Brennan is being dragged away by insurgents.

“Imagine what you’re going through in realistic hand-to-hand combat,” Larsen said. “It’s intimate. You can feel each other’s breath. You can almost taste each other. There’s probably nothing more intense in the world.”

“Ten feet from each other in open warfare is very close,” he said.

Larsen said Giunta is “a great example” of the kind of soldiers the Army wants.

“Look, at the end of the day, what makes a warrior is what made him drive forward for his friends. That’s what we’re trying to teach our men to do. The willingness to get close – that’s the defining characteristic of a warrior.”

[Soldiers from Bravo Troop, 1st Squadron, 75th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division conduct close quarters combat training last year. Photo by Spc. Joe Padula]