Washington ( CNN ) -- When President Obama awards the Medal of Honor to Staff Sgt . Sal Giunta on Tuesday , a lot will be made about the fact that he is the first living Medal of Honor recipient since Vietnam . To be exact , Giunta is the first living recipient since President Ford presented Medals of Honor to three heroes of Vietnam on March 4 , 1976 . The men who received the iconic gold medal on a pale blue ribbon that day -- James Stockdale , George Day and Thomas Norris -- continued to make history after receiving their medals . Refusing to talk . James Stockdale was a Navy pilot and the highest ranking prisoner of war in North Vietnam . `` I believe I had the easiest leadership job in the world : to maintain the organization , resistance and spirit of 10 of the finest men I have ever known , '' Stockdale wrote later in his book `` A Vietnam Experience : Ten Years of Reflection . '' While in captivity , Stockdale stabbed himself in the leg to convince his captors he would n't talk . After that , the official medal citation says , North Vietnam eased `` employment of excessive harassment and torture toward all of the prisoners of war . '' Stockdale went on to become a president of the Naval War College and eventually ran for vice president with Ross Perot . Stockdale died in 2005 and is buried at the Naval Academy . Resisting interrogation . George `` Bud '' Day , an Air Force pilot , was held as a POW for years in North Vietnam , often in the same prison as Stockdale . Day was badly injured when he was shot down and shot later during an escape attempt . Even though he was debilitated , the North Vietnamese subjected him to frequent torture . Years later , during an online chat with viewers of PBS , Day described what his ordeal in the hands of North Vietnamese captors was like . `` They would punish you . They would rope you up or beat you up or torture you in some fashion until you made a response of some kind , '' Day wrote . `` If someone has unrestricted torture ability , there 's a lot they can do . They hung people . Stretched your arms out . Broke people 's arms . Our population had a 40 percent injury rate . Broken arms . Broken backs . They were a fragile group who could be exploited with a great deal of physical pain . They did that . '' According to Day 's Medal of Honor citation , his refusal to talk to his captors protected other pilots . `` His personal bravery in the face of deadly enemy pressure was significant in saving the lives of fellow aviators who were still flying against the enemy . '' His legal battle with the government over medical benefits for veterans led to a law that guarantees that military retirees and their spouses will have medical benefits for life . Day later became a member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth , a political group opposed to Sen. John Kerry 's presidential candidacy in 2004 . He was also an outspoken supporter of Sen. John McCain 's 2008 presidential run . Day lives in Florida . Rescuing captured pilot . Thomas Norris was a Navy SEAL . Norris volunteered to go more than a mile into enemy territory to rescue Lt. Col. Iceal `` Gene '' Hambleton , a captured pilot who had valuable information about U.S. missiles and targets that his captors , the North Vietnamese , would want to learn . Norris later learned that 30,000 North Vietnamese and Viet Cong fighters were combing the area for him . `` I was almost constantly in a position where I could have been killed , '' Norris told the Washington Post in 1976 . `` The fact that the danger is there is something you do n't even worry about . '' Norris ' rescue of Hambleton is the inspiration for the book and movie `` Bat*21. `` In spite of losing an eye in a later SEAL mission in Vietnam , Norris became an original member of the FBI 's elite Hostage Rescue Team . All three were alive when President Ford presented them with the Medal of Honor . Ford awarded a fourth Medal of Honor that day . It was a posthumous medal to U.S. Air Force Captain Lance Sijan , another pilot who endured repeated torture without divulging any information to the North Vietnamese . Righting a wrong . There have been other living Medal of Honor recipients in the years since 1976 , but those were retroactive awards . Because of racism during past wars , or because more information about heroics comes to light , the Department of Defense reinvestigates a service member 's actions and decides he deserves a Medal of Honor . The latest recipient , Giunta , will receive the award three years after his heroics . He was recommended for a Medal of Honor hours after a bloody ambush and firefight in eastern Afghanistan in 2007 . It has taken until now for the medal to be approved . Another Medal of Honor may be awarded relatively soon . CNN has learned that a young Marine from Kentucky , Dakota Meyer , has been recommended for a Medal of Honor for heroics in September 2009 in Afghanistan 's Kunar province . His case is now being considered at the highest levels of the Pentagon .
Giunta is the first living recipient since 1976 . Other living recipients continued to make history . Some retroactive awards have been made since 1976 .