Overview
- Master Sgt. Roderick “Roddie” W. Edmonds received a posthumous award for defying a Nazi order at a German POW camp in January 1945 by having all American prisoners stand together, an act credited with protecting more than 200 Jewish American soldiers.
- Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson, the only living honoree, was recognized for directing about 32 airstrikes while wounded during a Sept. 14, 1968 battle on Hill 222 near Loc Ninh, actions credited with saving 85 soldiers.
- Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis was honored posthumously for shielding wounded Polish Lt. Karol Cierpica during a 2013 attack at Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Afghanistan, where a suicide bomber’s vest detonated and killed him.
- Family members accepted the medals for Edmonds and Ollis, and Cierpica attended the ceremony and thanked the Ollis family, underscoring bonds between U.S. and Polish forces.
- Edmonds’ moral courage had earlier been recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations in 2015, and the White House released formal citations detailing each soldier’s actions.