In a ceremony scheduled for March 2, 2026, President Donald J. Trump will present the Medal of Honor to three U.S. Army soldiers whose actions under fire spanned three different conflicts.
The awards recognize Master Sergeant Roderick “Roddie” W. Edmonds, Staff Sergeant Michael H. Ollis, and Command Sergeant Major Terry P. Richardson for conspicuous gallantry that went far beyond the call of duty.
The recognition for Master Sergeant Edmonds comes posthumously for his leadership as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany in early 1945.
While held at Stalag IXA, Edmonds, the highest-ranking non-commissioned officer at the camp, was confronted by a German commandant who ordered all Jewish-American prisoners to identify themselves for segregation.
Realizing the danger his men faced, Edmonds ordered all 1,200 American prisoners to stand together. When the commandant held a pistol to his head and demanded he identify the Jewish soldiers, Edmonds refused, stating, “We are all Jews here.” His defiance saved an estimated 200 Jewish-American soldiers from near-certain death.
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Staff Sergeant Michael H. Ollis will also be honored posthumously for his actions in Afghanistan on August 28, 2013. During a massive complex assault on Forward Operating Base Ghazni involving suicide vests and mortar fire, Ollis rushed toward the sound of the attack.
Without his own body armor, he linked up with a Polish officer to repel the insurgents. When a suicide bomber emerged from the chaos, Ollis stepped between the attacker and the wounded Polish officer, shielding his comrade from the blast. His intervention saved the officer’s life at the cost of his own.
The third recipient, Command Sergeant Major Terry P. Richardson (Retired), is being recognized for his bravery during the Vietnam War. On September 14, 1968, Richardson’s platoon was ambushed by a North Vietnamese battalion near Loc Ninh.
Under heavy machine-gun fire, Richardson moved into the open three separate times to rescue wounded soldiers. Later that day, he climbed a strategic hill occupied by the enemy to direct air strikes. Despite being wounded by a sniper, he remained in his position for seven hours to coordinate the defense of his unit, an effort credited with saving the lives of 85 fellow soldiers.
The Medal of Honor is the United States’ highest military decoration, reserved for service members who risk their lives in acts of extreme bravery during combat. These three soldiers represent the infantry’s legacy across the 20th and 21st centuries, from the frozen camps of World War II to the jungles of Vietnam and the high-desert outposts of Afghanistan.
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