Washington — President Donald Trump admitted Three US Army soldiers With the Medal of Honor at the White House on Monday, with two of the honors awarded posthumously.
Retired Sgt. Major Terry P. Richardson was honored for his actions during the Vietnam War that were credited with saving the lives of 85 other service members.
Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2013, was honored for saving the life of a Polish Army officer.
Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds, who died in 1985, was known for his leadership and resistance as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II.
“There is no ceremony that could be more important than this,” Trump said at the start of the East Room ceremony that included family members of the recipients and Officer Ulysses, protected from enemy fire.
“The courage is amazing,” Trump said. “You never know who is brave and who is not until you are tested.”
The Republican President also took advantage of the ceremony to talk about his decision to launch the program War in IranHis campaign against immigration and the expansion of the White House and the curtains he chose at the Executive Mansion during his first presidency. Regarding Iran, the president defended the preemptive measure as necessary to prevent Tehran from rebuilding its nuclear program and becoming “an intolerable threat to the Middle East but also to the American people.”
The Medal of Honor is awarded by Presidents of the United States, in the name of Congress, for combat service above and beyond the call of duty at the risk of life.
On September 14, 1968, Richardson was a sergeant on a reconnaissance mission as a platoon leader in the vicinity of Loc Ninh, part of the Republic of Vietnam.
According to his citation, Richardson, a native of Cass City, Michigan, came under North Vietnamese Army fire, including heavy machine gun fire, while rescuing three wounded soldiers. After rescue operations, he led his unit to their intended destination, a hilltop that had been designated as a location for air strikes. He found the site to be part of an enemy camp, but he remained for at least seven hours, directing strikes even after being hit by a sniper’s bullet.
In the end, the enemy forces fled. When Richardson was found by other American forces, he refused medical evaluation so that he could remain with his forces.
“His courageous and selfless actions… saved the lives of 85 of his fellow soldiers,” the White House said.
Trump praised Richardson, who attended with some members of his unit, as a “courageous man” and described him as a “central figure.”
“Do you feel like fighting? I think we can beat him today,” Trump joked with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
As a sergeant at Forward Operating Base Ghazni, Ulysses was a skilled infantryman who led soldiers during an attack on the base by enemy combatants on August 28, 2013.
Ollis, who was 24 at the time, first directed the soldiers to a bunker before returning to their building to check for any people in danger, according to his citation. The native of Staten Island, New York, came across Allied Forces officer Lt. Karol Serbicka from Poland. They moved toward the fighters who had penetrated the base’s perimeter and joined other coalition forces.
During the fighting, he encountered an enemy fighter, Ulysses and Serbica.
“With complete disregard for his own safety, he placed himself between the insurgents and the coalition forces officer, who was wounded and unable to walk,” the tribute read. “Sergeant Ulysses shot and incapacitated the insurgent, but as he approached him, the explosive vest the latter was wearing exploded, fatally wounding him.”
When Trump invited him to the podium, Serpicka became emotional at times as he praised.
“A soldier is not who you are from time to time. He is who you are forever,” Serbica said, later adding: “I am deeply touched, happy and grateful to God.”
Serbicka named his son Michael Ulysses, and addressed Ulysses’ family members by name, calling them “my second family from Staten Island” and the United States his “second homeland.”
Edmonds, a staff sergeant, was a high-ranking noncommissioned officer among American prisoners of war in a German camp in early 1945.
According to the praise, the Germans announced on January 26, 1945, that “only American Jewish prisoners would come forward to request names the next morning, under threat of execution.”
Edmonds, who recruited from South Knoxville, Tennessee, decided that allowing such segregation would result in the torture or death of 200 Jewish American prisoners of war. He ordered the officers to have all 1,200 American troops present themselves for roll call.
With the German commander angry, Edmunds stood his ground and invoked the prisoners’ rights under international law.
“We are all Jews here,” Edmonds said in a quote narrated by Trump on Monday.
The German officer acquiesced and made no further efforts to identify the Jewish American soldiers.
“It’s really amazing, isn’t it? It’s an amazing story,” Trump said.
Weeks later, as Allied forces advanced toward the camp, the Germans ordered the POWs to prepare for evacuation. Edmunds prepared the prisoners of war to gather in formation and resist. German forces eventually withdrew from the camp.
“With no regard for his own life, Sergeant Edmonds courageously led these prisoners in a relentless pursuit of dissent and resistance, forcing the Germans to abandon the camp and leaving behind 1,200 American prisoners,” the White House said.
Edmonds’ son Chris first learned of the story when he read his father’s posthumous memoirs, then interviewed surviving veterans who had also been prisoners of war. Chris Edmonds has spent years pushing for official recognition and on Monday accepted the medal from Trump on behalf of his father.
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Barrow reported from Atlanta.