Richardson retired from the Army on July 31, 2008, as command sergeant major at Camp Grayling, Mich.<\/p>\n
At the retirement ceremony, one of his unit buddies, Dave Himmer, spoke about what happened on Sept. 14, 1968.<\/p>\n
It was the first time the story had really been told.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had never said anything … about that. I mean, I struggled for a long time, believe me. But I never told anyone,\u201d Richardson said.<\/p>\n
During a reconnaissance mission between Loc Ninh and the Cambodian border, his company, Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, attempted to advance up Hill 222 in tandem with several other companies of the 1st Infantry Division. The hill was controlled by elements of the North Vietnamese 7th Division.<\/p>\n
Richardson\u2019s unit became separated from the rest of the company and got pinned down by enemy fire, wounding three American soldiers. They were able to move the wounded to the rear to be evacuated.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that we were up against a pretty superior force, so I took it by myself,\u201d he added. \u201cI took a radio, and I went to the top of the hill and I called in airstrikes because I knew artillery was not going to be able to help us out that much.\u201d<\/p>\n
He managed to make it into a small irrigation ditch at the top of the hill, maybe 18 inches deep, Richardson said. From there, he got on the radio to call airstrikes. The then-staff sergeant was told to pop smoke so the pilots would know where he was and wouldn\u2019t hit him. Richardson couldn\u2019t do that with all of the North Vietnamese surrounding him.<\/p>\n
About an hour into the strikes, Richardson said he \u201cfelt something sting;\u201d he was shot in the right leg. Ignoring the pain, he stayed on the radio for seven hours calling in airstrikes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew that the Vietnamese were ready to get out of there,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cAnd when the airstrikes were done, the ones that were left, they started running on the backside of the hill. I watched them run, and they were headed toward Cambodia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Richardson is credited with saving the lives of 85 members of Alpha company.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo other Medal of Honor recipient from Vietnam saved 85 of his people. I mean, it\u2019s a grace of God \u2026 but it is his bravery, and what he did is just incredible,\u201d Himmer said.<\/p>\n
Himmer, a retired U.S. Air Force command chief master sergeant, said it has been a long journey to get Richardson the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
Part of the journey began on Veterans Day in 2000, when a group from the unit gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington. It was the first time they had met with one another since leaving Vietnam.<\/p>\n
Richardson had received the Silver Star, the third-highest military decoration. Himmer told Richardson that the citation noted that he saved two men; he actually saved 85. Himmer wanted to move forward with getting the Silver Star upgraded to the Medal of Honor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018No, I don\u2019t authorize it. I was just doing my job,\u2019\u201d Himmer recalled.<\/p>\n
When Richardson retired in 2008, he invited Himmer to come and tell his story. That\u2019s when Richardson gave permission to move forward with the award, Himmer said.<\/p>\n
During the process, Himmer\u2019s routine was calling Richardson every Sept. 14 to thank him for his actions and to say, \u201cwe\u2019re still working on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Himmer called Richardson the first week of December to let his buddy know that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had approved the award.<\/p>\n
Richardson said he got a call from President Donald Trump Feb. 2 with the news. He said he almost \u201cfell out of his chair.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018I read your story,\u2019\u201d Richardson remembered. \u201cAnd he said, \u2018I\u2019ll tell you right now \u2026 I probably would never do what you did. When I read it, I knew I wanted to talk to you.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the call with Trump lasted maybe 10 minutes, and it was \u201cquite an honor.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI am going to be humbled to have the president of the United States put that around my neck,\u201d Richardson added. \u201cI\u2019ll probably be thinking of a lot of my friends that lost their lives in Vietnam, and how my life\u2019s going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Trump read to the audience about Richardson\u2019s actions during Vietnam, he was quick to point out that Richardson could still fight.<\/p>\n
\u201cTerry, that\u2019s a great, brave man. Look at him. He looks great,\u201d the president said. \u201cYou feel like fighting? We could, I think we could take him today. What do you think, Pete?\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump patted Richardson on the shoulder before placing the medal around his neck. He patted his shoulders again before Richardson turned around.<\/p>\n
Richardson turned to Trump and immediately said, \u201cWow!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The Stripes article has some written about the other men, with pictures of their families receiving the honors on their behalf.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
President Trump awarded three Medals of Honor this morning. This is in addition to the two … Three MoHs awarded today<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":664,"featured_media":180103,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[359,455,389,446,217,649],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-180102","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-army","category-gwot","category-valor","category-vietnam","category-we-remember","category-wwii"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/CSM-Terry-Richardson.jpg?fit=910%2C568&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180102","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/664"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=180102"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180102\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/180103"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=180102"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=180102"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=180102"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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