President Trump celebrated the heroism of three U.S. Army soldiers by recognizing their bravery with the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on Monday.
Mr. Trump presented the award to retired Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson, who is credited with saving the lives of 85 other service members during the Vietnam War; the late Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013; and the late Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds, who was recognized for his leadership to save American prisoners in Nazi Germany during World War II.
Ollis and Edmonds, who died in 1985, were recognized posthumously.
“There’s no ceremony that can be more important than this,” Mr. Trump said at the start of the ceremony, which included top defense officials and recipients’ family members.
The Medal of Honor is the military’s highest honor and is awarded to service members who demonstrate exceptional valor in combat. Of the 40 million who have served in the Army, only 3,500 soldiers have received the Medal of Honor.
Sgt. Richardson was on a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam in 1968 when he came under fire from the North Vietnamese army. He braved heavy machine gun fire on three occasions to rescue three severely wounded soldiers.
Edmonds was honored for his bravery after being captured as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany. In January 1945, the German prison guards announced that “only Jewish Americans would fall out for roll call the following morning at the threat of execution,” according to his citation.
Recognizing that it meant those prisoners would be killed, Edmonds ordered all 1,200 American prisoners to present themselves for roll call, creating confusion.
Incredulous that all Americans were standing in formation, the Nazi commandant pressed his pistol against Edmonds’ forehead between his eyes and demanded that all Jewish prisoners step forward, or Edmonds would be killed.
Edmonds fearlessly held his ground and warned the commandant that if he executed him, he would be charged with war crimes when the war was over. The commandant dropped his pistol without further attempts to segregate the prisoners.
Ollis was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 when an insurgent detonated a suicide vest. He positioned himself between the insurgent and a wounded U.S. Army soldier who was unable to walk, thus saving the service member’s life.
The incident took place after his infantry battalion came under attack by insurgents with improvised explosives, suicide vests and small arms.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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