Medal of Honor recipient Terry Richardson gets standing ovation in Grand Traverse County

The ballroom rose to its feet when Command Sgt. Maj. Terry Patrick Richardson entered the Disabled American Veterans State Convention at the Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, and the applause carried the weight of a community that knows what military service means. The Michigan native was greeted Wednesday, June 4, by veterans, families and attendees in a room set inside a resort about six miles from Traverse City, a setting built to hold everything from small meetings to crowds of 2,500.

Richardson’s recognition was not just ceremonial. President Donald Trump presented him the Medal of Honor in March 2026 for actions in Vietnam on Sept. 14, 1968, when he repeatedly exposed himself to enemy fire to rescue wounded soldiers. That kind of battlefield record gave the room’s reaction its force: the honor was being placed on a living man whose decisions had been measured in lives saved, not in abstract heroics.

According to the Medal of Honor citation, Richardson served as a Lima Platoon leader with Company A, 1st Battalion, 28th Infantry Regiment, 1st Infantry Division. His action took place at Hill 222, north of Loc Ninh, near the Cambodian border. He went back three separate times under heavy fire to recover wounded soldiers, then directed tactical air strikes for seven hours after being wounded himself. The citation says his actions directly spared 85 lives, including 82 soldiers in Alpha Company.

Richardson told the crowd the honor really belonged to the platoon and company he served with, underscoring the collective nature of the sacrifice behind the medal. That humility resonated in a county with a strong veteran presence, where the memory of service often lives in family stories, school events and public ceremonies as much as in official observances.

The size of the distinction also mattered. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society says there are only 63 living Medal of Honor recipients, placing Richardson among a rare group of Americans whose service has been recognized at the highest level. For Grand Traverse County, the standing ovation at the resort made that rarity visible in person, turning a statewide veterans convention into a local moment of remembrance and gratitude.