New Medal of Honor recipient to deliver keynote remarks at Veterans Day Breakfast

He is now the second living Medal of Honor recipient from Michigan and one of the newest recipients from the Vietnam War. 

Today, we bring you the story of retired Army Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Richardson. The War Memorial is honored to announce that Richardson will be the keynote speaker at our Veterans Day Breakfast. This marks the second time in as many years that a Medal of Honor recipient will speak at the annual Veterans Day event. Jim McCloughan, the other living Michigan recipient, spoke at the event in 2025. 
 
Of the over 40 million Americans who have served since the Civil War, only 3,536 have received the medal. Today, there are 65 living recipients. In early March, Richardson received the Medal of Honor, the country's highest award for military valor in action. 

Terry Richardson was presented the Medal of Honor at a White House ceremony on March 2, 2026.

Richardson was born in Cass City, Michigan and grew up in Fairgrove, a small village in Tuscola County that is situated about a half hour northeast of Frankenmuth. He graduated from Akron-Fairgrove High School in 1966.    
 
Now 78, Richardson received the Medal of Honor for actions taken on Sept. 14, 1968 north of Loc Ninh, Vietnam. At that time, he was a staff sergeant, part of Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry, 1st Infantry Division. His actions that day directly resulted in 85 lives being spared. 

Drafted into the Army in May 1967, he arrived in Vietnam one year later. 
 
“I got off the plane at Cam Ranh Bay. The first thing I remembered was the smell,” Richardson, who graduated from Akron-Fairgrove High School in 1966, said. “It smelled like a swamp and dead vegetation. It was at night and I was amazed at the gunships that were flying. You could see the tracers. You’d get off the plane and immediately sweat.” 
 
When asked to describe for folks the situation he experienced on Sept. 14, 1968, now known as his Medal of Honor action date, he said his unit - who was on a search and destroy mission - was walking point for the battalion that day. 

“We started up the hill and took fire immediately,” Richardson said. “My radio guy got wounded and the second guy from point and the squad leader both got wounded.” 
 
Knowing they were in a “world of hurt,” Richardson grabbed a radio and told the machine gunners to lay down a base of fire. He then cautiously proceeded up Hill 222. 
 
“Eventually I got to the top of the hill and could see the Vietnamese,” he recalled. “There was a little irrigation ditch, maybe 18 inches deep. I crawled into that and could see the Vietnamese. I don’t know how I got up there and was never spotted. There was one Vietnamese in particular, maybe an officer, who was directing his people and hollering at them in Vietnamese. He was trying to move his people around and surround our company. 

Terry Richardson received the Medal of Honor for actions taken on Sept. 14, 1968 near Ap Go Cong, Vietnam. At that time, he was a staff sergeant. He is credited with directing no less than 32 air strikes and guided more than 75,000 pounds of ordnance onto enemy positions, saving 85 lives.

That day, Richardson called in airstrikes for eight hours, despite being shot in the right knee about one hour into it. 

“When it was all over with, I could see the Vietnamese running to get away from there. I could tell they were heading back into Cambodia because we were really close to the border,” he said. 
 
Estimating that the enemy was positioned around 50-75 yards from him, Richardson said he knows that God was on his shoulder that fateful day. 

“There’s no way I should have got to the top of the hill. I got up there and could see them, and thank God, they never saw me,” he said. “I was talking directly to the guys who were flying the jets and they would let me know what they were going to drop.” 

Richardson commented that Sept. 14, 1968, was by far the most intense day in combat for him. 
 
“I had been in firefights, but nothing like that. We’d never been up against an enemy of that size. If we had known what we were up against, I’m sure they never would have sent us up that hill. We were probably outnumbered 10 to 1,” he said.  
 
In Vietnam seven days short of one year, Richardson was discharged from the Army on May 8, 1969, with the rank of staff sergeant.  
 
Having only been a recipient for a few months, the 2026 Congressional Medal of Honor Society Convention in Detroit was Richardson’s first convention. On Oct. 1 and Oct. 2, Detroit hosted the convention, marking the first time that the convention, the largest annual gathering of America's living Medal of Honor recipients, was in Michigan. 

To register for Veterans Day Breakfast at The War Memorial, click here.