Trump to award Medal of Honor to three U.S. Army soldiers

President Trump announced Thursday that he will award the Medal of Honor to three U.S. Army soldiers, two posthumously, at a White House ceremony on Monday, recognizing their exceptional valor in combat across different wars decades apart. The president will present the prestigious award to Army Command Sgt. Terry P. Richardson, retired, who served in the Afghanistan War, and will posthumously honor U.S. Army Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds, a World War II veteran, and U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, who was killed in action during the war in Afghanistan. The Medal of Honor, the military's highest honor, is reserved for service members who demonstrate exceptional valor in combat, with only 3,500 soldiers having received it out of the 40 million who have served in the Army. Edmonds will be recognized for his bravery after being captured as a prisoner of war in Nazi Germany, where he ordered all 1,200 American prisoners to present themselves for roll call when the Germans demanded Jewish-American prisoners step forward, threatening to execute Edmonds if they didn't comply. His actions prevented the segregation and likely execution of Jewish-American prisoners. Ollis was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 when he positioned himself between an insurgent with a suicide vest and a wounded U.S. Army soldier who couldn't walk, saving the service member's life during an attack involving improvised explosives, suicide vests, and small arms. Sgt. Richardson distinguished himself during a reconnaissance mission in Vietnam in 1968 when he braved heavy machine gun fire multiple times to rescue wounded soldiers and directed air strikes for nearly seven hours while surrounded by enemy forces, saving 85 fellow soldiers. Earlier this week, Trump honored two military veterans with the Medal of Honor during his State of the Union address, including U.S. Army Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover wounded during a raid that captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, and retired Navy Capt. Royce E. Williams, 100, who shot down four Soviet MiG-15 fighters in blizzard conditions during the Korean War.