Three soldiers, whose collective service spanned World War II, Vietnam and Afghanistan, were awarded the Medal of Honor on March 2 during a ceremony at the White House.

Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson received the nation’s highest award from President Donald Trump during the ceremony. Master Sgt. Roderick Edmonds and Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. Edmonds’ son Chris Edmonds and Ollis’ parents, Robert and Linda Ollis, accepted the awards on their loved ones’ behalf.

“We’re gathered this morning to recognize the unsurpassed courage of three really incredible American heroes,” Trump said during the ceremony.

The three soldiers were honored just a week after Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, a special operations pilot who was wounded during the U.S. mission to capture Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, received the Medal of Honor. Slover was recognized Feb. 24 during Trump’s State of the Union address on Capitol Hill along with retired Navy Capt. Royce Williams, now 100 years old, for his actions during the Korean War in 1952.

Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson

A native of Cass City, Michigan, Richardson worked on his family’s farm after graduating from high school until he was drafted at 19 into the Army in May 1967. After completing training, he received orders to deploy to Vietnam in May 1968.

On Sept. 14, 1968, then-Staff Sgt. Richardson was a platoon leader with Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division, near Loc Ninh, Vietnam. During a reconnaissance mission, Richardson came under intense automatic weapons and small-arms fire from a well-entrenched North Vietnamese Army battalion, according to the White House.

The enemy fire “just kept coming,” pinning down the soldiers “in hell on Earth,” Trump said.

Richardson “summoned unimaginable courage three times” and braved heavy fire to rescue three severely wounded soldiers, Trump said. With his platoon surrounded, Richardson realized that the only way they would avoid being overrun was with accurate tactical air strikes, according to the Army. Richardson made his way up Hill 222 undetected to call in tactical air strikes from a shallow irrigation ditch with only rubber trees for cover.

Once on Hill 222, Richardson realized that it was an enemy regiment’s base camp. There, he “skillfully directed air strikes” before being shot in the right leg by an enemy sniper, the White House and the Army said. Ignoring his wound, Richardson continued to direct air strikes near his position for seven more hours, calling in approximately 32 airstrikes until the enemy retreated, according to the Army.

Later that day, Richardson’s fellow soldiers found him with “both eardrums ruptured and a mangled right leg and foot,” Trump said. Richardson’s actions saved the lives of 85 fellow soldiers, the Army said.

Speaking to the media on March 1, Richardson said he struggled with the events of that night for years, according to Stars and Stripes. “I struggled for a long time, believe me. But I never told anyone,” Richardson said.

He received the Silver Star for actions, but his fellow service members fought for the award to be upgraded. “I am going to be humbled to have the president of the United States put that around my neck,” Richardson said, according to Stars and Stripes. “I’ll probably be thinking of a lot of my friends that lost their lives in Vietnam, and how my life’s going to change.”

Master Sgt. Roderick Edmonds

Edmonds, who went by Roddie, grew up in South Knoxville, Tennessee, and worked as a stock clerk in a wallpaper store before enlisting in the Army in 1941. By December 1944, Edmonds was a master sergeant and the senior NCO of the Regimental Headquarters Company of the 106th Infantry Division’s 442nd Infantry Regiment.

Arriving in Europe just days before the Battle of the Bulge, Edmonds and others were captured by German forces on Dec. 19, 1944, and held as prisoners of war at Stalag IX-B in Bad Orb, Germany, according to the Army. On Jan. 25, 1945, Edmonds and the other NCOs in the camp were transferred to Stalag IX-A in Ziegenhain, Germany.

As the highest-ranking NCO at the camp, Edmonds was placed in command of the camp’s 1,292 American POWs. On the evening of Jan. 26, 1945, the Germans announced that only Jewish-American prisoners would fall out for roll call the following morning, at the threat of execution, according to the White House.

“Roddie knew their separation from the group would mean certain death,” Trump said during the ceremony. Edmonds came up with a plan, and the next morning, all 1,200 American prisoners fell in line together, “shoulder to shoulder,” Trump said.

The Nazi commandant became incredulous after realizing that so many Americans were standing in formation. Enraged, the German officer drew his pistol and pressed the barrel between Edmonds’ eyes and demanded that Edmonds identify the Jewish soldiers, Trump said. “They cannot all be Jews,” the officer yelled, Trump said.

Edmonds replied, “We are all Jews here.”

Several weeks later, in March 1945, as Allied forces were rapidly advancing toward the area, the Germans ordered all prisoners to assemble outside the barracks for evacuation farther east to another camp, the Army said. Fully intending to undermine his enemy captors, Edmonds ordered all American prisoners to form in front of the barracks, and when the enemy transports arrived, they would break ranks and rush back to their barracks.

“Without regard for his own life, Master Sergeant Edmonds gallantly led these prisoners in a relentless pursuit of opposition and resistance, forcing the Germans to abandon the camp leaving the 1,200 American prisoners behind,” the Army said.

On March 30, 1945, the camp was liberated by the advancing U.S. 6th Armored Division.

Edmonds returned to the United States in April 1945 and was discharged in October that year. He returned to active duty in September 1950 and served with 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, in Korea from July 1950 to early 1951, the Army said.

After his service, Edmonds returned to Knoxville, married and raised two sons. He died in 1985.

Chris Edmonds said his father never talked about his experiences during the war. Instead, he learned about his father’s actions from another POW and by reading his father’s diaries after his death. “He wrote in his diary, ‘I’m a little guy but a giant of a man,’ ” Chris Edmonds told reporters, according to Stars and Stripes. “He loved our country. He loved our freedom. He was a man whose heart beat for freedom.”

Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis

Born in Staten Island, New York, Ollis was almost 13 when terrorists attacked on Sept. 11, 2001. Inspired by his father and grandfathers’ military service and driven by the attacks on his home state, Ollis joined the Army in 2006.

In January 2013, Ollis, an infantryman assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, deployed to Afghanistan for his third overseas deployment.

On Aug. 28, 2013, a complex enemy attack involving vehicle-borne IEDs, suicide vests, indirect fire and small arms fire was launched against his base, Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Afghanistan, according to the Army.

After accounting for his soldiers, Ollis moved to check for casualties and toward the enemy force that had breached the base perimeter. Ollis found 2nd Lt. Karol Cierpica, a Polish officer and a member of the coalition forces also stationed at the base, and together they moved toward the point of attack, without body armor and armed only with rifles.

While under continuous small-arms, indirect and rocket-propelled grenade fires, Ollis and Cierpica reached the attack point and linked up with other friendly forces to begin a coordinated effort to repulse the enemy from the airfield and adjacent buildings. They moved under fire from position to position, engaging the enemy with accurate and effective fire.

During the fight, an enemy combatant came around a corner and immediately began firing at Ollis and Cierpica. Ollis positioned himself between the insurgent and Cierpica, who had been wounded in both legs and was unable to walk. Ollis fired on the enemy fighter, incapacitating him, but as he approached the wounded fighter, the fighter’s suicide vest detonated, mortally wounding Ollis, the Army said.

“Staff Sgt. Ollis was killed just weeks before his 25th birthday, and nobody was anymore brave than that. In his final act on Earth, Michael absorbed the blast, sparing the life of that Polish warrior,” Trump said, as he introduced Cierpica during the ceremony.

Ollis was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the nation’s third-highest award for valor in combat. In 2019, the medal was upgraded to a Distinguished Service Cross, according to a 2024 10th Mountain Division news release.

Ollis’ father, Robert, said Cierpica and the Poles continue to honor his son. “To this day, they still honor him in so many different ways. They recognize his sacrifice, and they tell us how important he is to them,” Robert Ollis said, according to Stars and Stripes. “We’re just so amazed and so grateful that they remember him.”