II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 642 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant Rodrick ‘‘Roddie’’ 

Edmonds in recognition of his heroic actions during World War II. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

MARCH 4, 2019 

Mr. ALEXANDER (for himself and Mrs. BLACKBURN) introduced the following 

bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, 

Housing, and Urban Affairs 

A BILL 

To award a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant 

Rodrick ‘‘Roddie’’ Edmonds in recognition of his heroic 

actions during World War II. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Master Sergeant 

5 Roddie Edmonds Congressional Gold Medal Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds the following: 

8 (1) Rodrick W. Edmonds (in this Act referred 

9 to as ‘‘Roddie Edmonds’’ or ‘‘Edmonds’’) was born 


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1 in 1919 in South Knoxville, Tennessee, and grad2 uated from Knoxville High School in 1938. 

3 (2) Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in 

4 the United States Army and a member of the 422nd 

5 Infantry Regiment while serving during World War 

6 II. 

7 (3) Roddie Edmonds landed in Europe in 1944 

8 and fought to the border between Belgium and Ger9 many. In December of 1944, while fighting in the 

10 Battle of the Bulge, Edmonds was captured by Nazi 

11 forces and detained in Stalag IX–A, a prisoner of 

12 war camp in Ziegenhain, Germany. 

13 (4) Stalag IX–A was a site used to identify, 

14 segregate, and remove Jewish soldiers from the gen15 eral population of prisoners of war and many of the 

16 Jewish soldiers who were so removed were sent to 

17 labor camps or murdered. Members of the Armed 

18 Forces were warned of this policy and aware that 

19 their fellow servicemen could be at risk. 

20 (5) As the senior noncommissioned officer in 

21 Stalag IX–A, Master Sergeant Edmonds was re22 sponsible for 1,275 members of the Armed Forces at 

23 the camp. Approximately 1 month after the date on 

24 which Edmonds was detained, Edmonds was di25 rected to order the Jewish-American soldiers under 


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1 his command to fall out in order to separate the 

2 Jewish-American soldiers from their fellow prisoners. 

3 (6) Disregarding the orders of the Nazis, 

4 Roddie Edmonds commanded all of his men to fall 

5 out and, the following morning, all of the 1,275 

6 members of the Armed Forces under the command 

7 of Edmonds stood outside of their prison barracks. 

8 (7) Upon seeing the soldiers, a German officer 

9 angrily shouted, ‘‘They cannot all be Jews!’’, to 

10 which Edmonds replied, ‘‘We are all Jews here’’. 

11 (8) The German officer took out his pistol and 

12 pointed the gun at the head of Edmonds, but Ed13 monds refused to identify the Jewish soldiers. In14 stead, Edmonds responded, ‘‘According to the Gene15 va Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, 

16 and serial number. If you shoot me, you will have 

17 to shoot all of us and, after the war, you will be 

18 tried for war crimes’’. 

19 (9) The German officer turned away from Ed20 monds and the other soldiers and left the scene. The 

21 actions taken by Edmonds saved the lives of ap22 proximately 200 Jewish-American members of the 

23 Armed Forces. 

24 (10) Lester Tanner, a Jewish-American mem25 ber of the Armed Forces also captured during the 


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1 Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the incident and stat2 ed that, ‘‘There was no question in my mind, or that 

3 of Master Sergeant Edmonds, that the Germans 

4 were removing the Jewish prisoners from the general 

5 population at great risk to their survival. The U.S. 

6 Army’s standing command to its ranking officers in 

7 POW camps is that you resist the enemy and care 

8 for the safety of your men to the greatest extent 

9 possible. Master Sergeant Edmonds, at the risk of 

10 his immediate death, defied the Germans with the 

11 unexpected consequences that the Jewish prisoners 

12 were saved’’. 

13 (11) Edmonds survived 100 days in captivity 

14 and returned home after the war. Later, Edmonds 

15 served the United States in Korea as a member of 

16 the National Guard. Edmonds died in 1985, but 

17 never told his family or anyone else of his brave ac18 tions outside the barracks of Stalag IX–A during 

19 World War II. 

20 (12) Edmonds was posthumously recognized by 

21 Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance 

22 Center in Jerusalem, as ‘‘Righteous Among the Na23 tions’’, the first member of the Armed Forces and 

24 1 of only 5 people of the United States to be so rec25 ognized. Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, 


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1 announced the selection of Edmonds by saying, 

2 ‘‘Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds seemed like an 

3 ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraor4 dinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his 

5 fellow human beings. . . . The choices and actions 

6 of Master Sergeant Edmonds set an example for his 

7 fellow American soldiers as they stood united against 

8 the barbaric evil of the Nazis’’. 

9 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

10 (a) AWARD AUTHORIZED.—The Speaker of the 

11 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 

12 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 

13 posthumous award, on behalf of Congress, of a gold medal 

14 of appropriate design to Roddie Edmonds in recognition 

15 of his achievements and heroic actions during World War 

16 II. 

17 (b) DESIGN AND STRIKING.—For the purpose of the 

18 award referred to in subsection (a), the Secretary of the 

19 Treasury (referred to in this Act as the ‘‘Secretary’’) shall 

20 strike a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and 

21 inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. 

22 (c) PRESENTATION AND AWARD OF MEDAL.—The 

23 gold medal referred to in subsection (a) shall be presented, 

24 and following the presentation awarded, to the next of kin 

25 of Roddie Edmonds. 


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1 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

2 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

3 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 under 

4 such regulations as the Secretary may prescribe, at a price 

5 sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate6 rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and 

7 the cost of the gold medal. 

8 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

9 (a) NATIONAL MEDALS.—The medals struck under 

10 this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 

11 of title 31, United States Code. 

12 (b) NUMISMATIC ITEMS.—For purposes of sections 

13 5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 

14 struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 

15 items. 

Æ 


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