I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 1908 

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

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

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MARCH 27, 2019 

Mr. BURCHETT (for himself, Mr. DAVID P. ROE of Tennessee, Mr. 

FLEISCHMANN, Mr. DESJARLAIS, Mr. COOPER, Mr. JOHN W. ROSE of 

Tennessee, Mr. GREEN of Tennessee, Mr. KUSTOFF of Tennessee, and 

Mr. COHEN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 

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: 


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

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

3 in 1919 in South Knoxville, Tennessee, and grad4 uated from Knoxville High School in 1938. 

5 (2) Roddie Edmonds was a Master Sergeant in 

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

7 Infantry Regiment while serving during World War 

8 II. 

9 (3) Roddie Edmonds landed in Europe in 1944 

10 and fought to the border between Belgium and Ger11 many. In December of 1944, while fighting in the 

12 Battle of the Bulge, Edmonds was captured by Nazi 

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

14 war camp in Ziegenhain, Germany. 

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

16 segregate, and remove Jewish soldiers from the gen17 eral population of prisoners of war and many of the 

18 Jewish soldiers who were so removed were sent to 

19 labor camps or murdered. Members of the Armed 

20 Forces were warned of this policy and aware that 

21 their fellow servicemen could be at risk. 

22 (5) As the senior noncommissioned officer in 

23 Stalag IX–A, Master Sergeant Edmonds was re24 sponsible for 1,275 members of the Armed Forces at 

25 the camp. Approximately 1 month after the date on 


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1 which Edmonds was detained, Edmonds was di2 rected to order the Jewish-American soldiers under 

3 his command to fall out in order to separate the 

4 Jewish-American soldiers from their fellow prisoners. 

5 (6) Disregarding the orders of the Nazis, 

6 Roddie Edmonds commanded all of his men to fall 

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

8 members of the Armed Forces under the command 

9 of Edmonds stood outside of their prison barracks. 

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

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

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

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

14 pointed the gun at the head of Edmonds, but Ed15 monds refused to identify the Jewish soldiers. In16 stead, Edmonds responded, ‘‘According to the Gene17 va Convention, we only have to give our name, rank, 

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

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

20 tried for war crimes’’. 

21 (9) The German officer turned away from Ed22 monds and the other soldiers and left the scene. The 

23 actions taken by Edmonds saved the lives of ap24 proximately 200 Jewish-American members of the 

25 Armed Forces. 


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1 (10) Lester Tanner, a Jewish-American mem2 ber of the Armed Forces also captured during the 

3 Battle of the Bulge, witnessed the incident and stat4 ed that, ‘‘There was no question in my mind, or that 

5 of Master Sergeant Edmonds, that the Germans 

6 were removing the Jewish prisoners from the general 

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

8 Army’s standing command to its ranking officers in 

9 POW camps is that you resist the enemy and care 

10 for the safety of your men to the greatest extent 

11 possible. Master Sergeant Edmonds, at the risk of 

12 his immediate death, defied the Germans with the 

13 unexpected consequences that the Jewish prisoners 

14 were saved’’. 

15 (11) Edmonds survived 100 days in captivity 

16 and returned home after the war. Later, Edmonds 

17 served the United States in Korea as a member of 

18 the National Guard. Edmonds died in 1985, but 

19 never told his family or anyone else of his brave ac20 tions outside the barracks of Stalag IX–A during 

21 World War II. 

22 (12) Edmonds was posthumously recognized by 

23 Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance 

24 Center in Jerusalem, as ‘‘Righteous Among the Na25 tions’’, the first member of the Armed Forces and 


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1 1 of only 5 people of the United States to be so rec2 ognized. Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem, 

3 announced the selection of Edmonds by saying, 

4 ‘‘Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds seemed like an 

5 ordinary American soldier, but he had an extraor6 dinary sense of responsibility and dedication to his 

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

8 of Master Sergeant Edmonds set an example for his 

9 fellow American soldiers as they stood united against 

10 the barbaric evil of the Nazis’’. 

11 SEC. 3. CONGRESSIONAL GOLD MEDAL. 

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

13 House of Representatives and the President pro tempore 

14 of the Senate shall make appropriate arrangements for the 

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

16 of appropriate design to Roddie Edmonds in recognition 

17 of his achievements and heroic actions during World War 

18 II. 

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

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

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

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

23 inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary. 

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

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


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

2 of Roddie Edmonds. 

3 SEC. 4. DUPLICATE MEDALS. 

4 The Secretary may strike and sell duplicates in 

5 bronze of the gold medal struck under section 3 under 

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

7 sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, mate8 rials, dies, use of machinery, and overhead expenses, and 

9 the cost of the gold medal. 

10 SEC. 5. STATUS OF MEDALS. 

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

12 this Act are national medals for purposes of chapter 51 

13 of title 31, United States Code. 

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

15 5134 and 5136 of title 31, United States Code, all medals 

16 struck under this Act shall be considered to be numismatic 

17 items. 

Æ 


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