3 soldiers who saved lives awarded congressional medal of honor for valor

(by Claire Barrett, Military Times) – President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to three soldiers Monday, recognizing a service member from World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan, respectively.

Master Sgt. Roderick “Roddie” Edmonds, retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson and Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis received the award for the nation’s highest military award for valor. Edmonds and Ollis were both posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

Edmonds died in 1985 in his hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee, while Ollis was killed in 2013 in Afghanistan while shielding a Polish officer from a suicide bomber.

‘We are all Jews’

Master Sgt. Roddie Edmonds

A master sergeant serving in the 106th Infantry Division, 422 Regiment Headquarters Company, Roddie Edmonds had been serving along the Siegfried Line in Bastogne, Belgium, for a mere six days in December 1944 when the Germans began their fanatical final offensive of World War II.

He, alongside thousands of other Americans, were captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge — the largest capture of GI forces during the entirety of the war. Eventually transported to German POW camp Stalag IX-A, the Americans subsisted on one loaf of bread per 10 men.

…On Jan. 27, 1945, Roddie Edmonds, as the highest-ranking American noncommissioned officer at the POW camp, was told to order his nearly 200 Jewish American soldiers out of the morning roll call. He knew if they were separated from the group, he knew it would mean certain death.

“That night, he summoned his team and devised a plan. The next morning, all 1,200 American men fell in line together, shoulder to shoulder. Enraged, the Nazi commandant rushed forward, drew his Luger pistol, and pressed the barrel between Sergeant Edmund’s eyes. He barked at Roddy, they cannot all be Jews! He screamed loud and again and again, and staring straight back into the raging face of evil, Sergeant Edmunds replied fearlessly, ‘We are all Jews here’. The Nazi officer lowered his weapon, and the soldiers erupted in cheers. With total disregard for his own life. Roddy had saved over 200 of his fellow service members.” Trump recounted during the ceremony at the White House.

Two months later, that POW camp was liberated. And 81 years after Roddy’s incredible act of bravery, his son, Chris accepted the Medal of Honor on his father’s behalf.

Surrounded in Loc Ninh

During a reconnaissance mission near Loc Ninh on Sept. 14, 1968, Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson waged a one-man attack against enemy forces on Hill 222, saving the lives of 85 soldiers.

Assigned to the 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, Richardson was serving as the platoon leader when he and his men came under heavy fire from a “well-entrenched North Vietnamese Army battalion,” according to the White House.

Completely surrounded, Richardson realized that the only way the Americans would avoid being overrun was to call in tactical air strikes — on himself.

From a shallow irrigation ditch with only rubber trees for cover, Richardson realized that he had unknowingly snuck into a large regimental base complex of the 7th North Vietnamese Army Division.

This photo shows Richardson after he was found by several soldiers after hours of calling in tactical airstrikes on his position during the Vietnam War. (Courtesy Dave Himmer)

Undeterred, he continued to guide the pilots in for seven hours, calling in approximately 32 airstrikes.

Richardson survived a series of napalm blasts — which sucks out the surrounding air — by pouring water on a towel, burying his face in it and then tucking his face under his armpit in order to not suffocate.

After that, “they broke contact with us,” Dave Himmer, one of the soldiers that was saved by Richardson that day, told Military Times. “There were six of us that [decided] to go up and find his body because we just knew that, how do you survive that?”

Himmer and five others found Richardson sitting on the hill, dried blood coming out of both eardrums — perforated from the hours of concussive blasts. One of the men snapped a photo of how they found Richardson.

“To me, [that] is one of the greatest pictures. That’s exactly how I found him. … We did not expect to find him alive,” Himmer recalled.

“There’s just no words to me personally in the English language that describe this man’s bravery,” Peter Sasko, another soldier from Richardson’s unit, said. “There’s just 85 of us were able to survive.”

As for Richardson himself, the ceremony “brings back things that you tried to get rid of.”

“It’s embarrassing. I mean, I had a real hard time this morning in my first interview. You just feel terrible. It’s humbling. … Hopefully, I will never do anything to devalue or embarrass our country. I’ll do whatever it takes and do it proudly.”

One soldier’s sacrifice

According to previous Military Times reporting, Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis (from Staten Island, NY), assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, had been posted at Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province on Aug. 28, 2013, when the base was breached by a car bomb.

The breach allowed for 10 enemy fighters wearing suicide vests to make their way inside the outer wall. More insurgents pelted the base with mortars and grenades from outside.

According to Ollis’ Distinguished Service Cross citation, he accounted for his soldiers and checked for casualties before running toward the enemy assault. He linked up with Polish soldier Karol Cierpica and they moved toward the attackers and began to engage them “without their personal protection equipment and armed only with their rifles.”

“While fighting along the perimeter of the forward operating base, an insurgent came around a corner and immediately engaged them with small arms fire,” Ollis’ citation reads. “With complete disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Ollis positioned himself between the insurgent and [Cierpica] who had been wounded in both legs and was unable to walk. Staff Sergeant Ollis fired on the insurgent and incapacitated him, but as he approached the insurgent, the insurgent’s suicide vest detonated, mortally wounding him.”

His father, Robert Ollis, a Vietnam veteran himself who served with the 5th Battalion, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, told Military Times that he is feeling “up and down” regarding the ceremony. He felt great “pride” and joy” but noted there was sadness as well.

“Of course, I’d rather have Michael back,” he concluded.

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis poses with a directional signpost in Afghanistan in March 2013. These signs, often handmade by Soldiers, show the direction and distance to various locations around the world, including their homes in the United States. Photo couresty of the Ollis family.

Hope Hodge Seck contributed to this story.