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President Donald Trump awarded the Medal of Honor to three U.S. Army soldiers at the White House on Monday, in an East Room ceremony that included the recipients’ family members and other officials. Trump began the event by saying, “There’s no ceremony that can be more important than this,” as families and attendees gathered for the formal presentations.
The Medal of Honor is awarded by U.S. presidents in the name of Congress for combat service that goes beyond the call of duty and risks one’s life. The ceremony highlighted heroes from different periods of American military history—Vietnam, Afghanistan and World War II—while Trump also used the moment to address current policy and political themes.
Retired Command Sgt. Maj. Terry P. Richardson received the medal for actions during the Vietnam War, where his White House recognition described a mission credited with saving 85 other service members. The citation described Richardson as having come under fire while leading a reconnaissance mission near Loc Ninh on Sept. 14, 1968, after which he rescued three wounded soldiers and then led his unit toward an intended hilltop location used to direct airstrikes.
The citation also says Richardson remained in the area for at least seven hours after being wounded by a sniper and continued directing strikes until enemy forces eventually fled. The White House statement quoted Richardson as declining medical evaluation when other U.S. forces found him so he could remain with his troops.
Trump also praised Richardson, who attended the ceremony with some members of his unit, describing him as a “brave man” and “central casting.” Trump said, “You feel like fighting? I think we could take him today,” while joking with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis was awarded the medal for actions during an Afghanistan attack on Aug. 28, 2013, at Forward Operating Base Ghazni. According to his citation, Ollis directed soldiers during the fighting, encountered Coalition Forces officer Lt. Karol Cierpica of Poland, and moved toward the area where enemy combatants had breached the base perimeter.
The citation says that during the confrontation, Ollis positioned himself between an insurgent and Cierpica, who had been wounded and unable to walk, and that Ollis fired on the insurgent but was killed when a suicide vest detonated. In remarks during the ceremony, Cierpica at times grew emotional while paying tribute, saying, “A soldier is not something you are from time to time. It is who you are forever,” and later adding that he was “deeply moved, happy and grateful to God.”
Cierpica said he named his son Michael after Ollis and told Ollis’ family that they were “my second family from Staten Island” and that the U.S. was his “second homeland.” Trump called the story “Really amazing, right? It’s an amazing story,” and the ceremony recognized Ollis’ death in the context of the citation’s account of shielding another officer from the attack.
Master Sgt. Roderick W. Edmonds received the medal for actions as a prisoner of war in Germany during World War II, according to a commendation read at the ceremony. The citation describes Edmonds as being among American POWs in a German camp in early 1945, when the Germans announced that “only Jewish-American prisoners would fall out for roll call” the following morning under threat of execution.
According to the commendation, Edmonds—who had enlisted from Knoxville, Tennessee—determined that segregation would lead to the torture or death of 200 Jewish American POWs. The citation says Edmonds directed officers to bring all 1,200 American troops to roll call, even as the German commandant became enraged and Edmonds stood his ground by invoking prisoners’ rights under international law.
Trump recounted Edmonds saying, “We are all Jews here,” and the citation says the German officer then relented without making further efforts to identify Jewish American soldiers. The commendation adds that when Germans ordered POWs to prepare for evacuation as Allied forces advanced, Edmonds prepared POWs to assemble in formation and resist, and the German forces later retreated from the camp, leaving the 1,200 American prisoners behind.
Edmonds’ son, Chris, accepted the medal on his father’s behalf, according to the ceremony account, after spending years advocating for official recognition by reading Edmonds’ journals and interviewing surviving veterans who had been POWs. Trump’s remarks also tied the medal presentations to a broader message he said the ceremony reflected “heroes of old wars” as he defended launching a new one, while speaking about Iran and other issues.
Before and during the ceremony, Trump used the medal event to talk about his administration’s fledgling war in Iran and said he believed preemptive action was necessary to stop Tehran from rebuilding its nuclear program. He described Iran as becoming “an intolerable threat to the Middle East but also to the American people,” and he also made remarks about his administration’s immigration crackdown, an expansion at the White House and the curtains he said he chose in his first term, saying, “I picked those drapes in my first term. I always liked gold.”