Bill > S642

This bill directs the Speaker of the House and the President pro tempore of the Senate to arrange for the posthumous award of a Congressional Gold Medal to Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds in recognition of his heroic actions during World War II. Edmonds, a U.S. Army soldier who was captured and held at the Stalag IXA prisoner of war camp in Germany, refused orders to identify Jewish-American soldiers under his command, thereby saving their lives. The bill provides details on Edmonds' bravery and his actions, which were later recognized by Yad Vashem, the World Holocaust Remembrance Center, as he became the first member of the U.S. Armed Forces to be designated as "Righteous Among the Nations."