Bethel McGrew: Honor long delayed

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. 

I’m Myrna Brown.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

President Trump last week awarded the Medal of Honor to three soldiers—two of them posthumously, one of them in person. 

One of those honors went to a World War II prisoner of war whose courage saved the lives of more than 200 fellow soldiers.

Here’s WORLD Opinions’ Bethel McGrew.

BETHEL MCGREW: On a cold February night in 2009, Christopher Edmonds sat at a laptop googling his father’s name: Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds.

Almost 24 years had passed since Roddie’s too-young death from congestive heart failure. Christopher had grown up to become a pastor and have a family of his own. One of his daughters had just done a history project that focused on her “papaw” and how he had been a POW in World War II.

The family kept a couple of fading diaries she’d carefully scanned. But Christopher still felt like he hadn’t helped his daughter enough—because the truth was, his father never wanted to talk about those days.

To make things more mysterious, some of the diary pages were missing. Others were taken up with a list of names and addresses—his father's fellow POWs.

How many of them were still alive?

Christopher couldn’t shake the nagging drive to learn more.

That night he scanned the results of his search and clicked on a 2008 New York Times article that seemed, at first, to have nothing to do with his father.

It was about how Richard Nixon had struggled to find a residence after his famous scandal—and how a Democrat named Lester Tanner had generously stepped forward to sell the disgraced ex-president his own townhouse.

In one passing sentence, Tanner said he felt moved to do this because a man had saved his life in a POW camp during the war.

A man named Roddie Edmonds.

Soon, Christopher would learn the full story.

AUDIO: “On the evening of January 26, 1945, the Germans announced that only Jewish American prisoners would fall out for roll call the following morning at the threat of execution. 

Master Sergeant Edmonds directed his senior leaders to have all 1,200 American prisoners present themselves for roll call.

The Nazi commandant became incredulous after realizing that so many Americans were standing in formation. The commandant removed his pistol, pressed it hard against Master Sergeant Edmonds’ forehead, between his eyes, and demanded that he order all Jewish American prisoners to step forward, or he would be shot.

Master Sergeant Edmonds fearlessly held his ground …

That was when Edmonds gave the iconic reply: “We are all Jews here.” 

He told the commandant that not only would he have to kill Edmonds first, he would have to kill every last man standing—because the end of the war was coming soon, and judgment with it. 

At that, the German officer holstered his pistol, turned around, and walked away.

One of the Jewish men who stood by Edmonds’ side that morning would later change his name—from Tannenbaum to Tanner.

When they finally met, Tanner told Christopher that he believed his father deserved the Medal of Honor. Yet despite his efforts to build a campaign, Tanner would not live to see it succeed. 

At first the government judged Edmonds ineligible because his actions had not taken place in combat. But that judgment was reversed this year.

At a special White House ceremony last Monday, Christopher Edmonds stood in for his father.

TRUMP: Today your father gets the honor he so courageously earned. And really amazing, right? It's an amazing story. Congratulations to the family of Master Sergeant Roddie Edmonds.

Although Christopher grew up knowing none of this remarkable story, he saw his father as a hero for simpler, quieter reasons: His constant fatherly presence. His steadfast Christian faith. In church he became famous for belting out “How Great Thou Art” in a strong, booming voice.

His favorite Bible verse was Romans 8:37: “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” 

He put that faith into action through faithful service to the community of Knoxville, Tennessee. After the war he worked as a sales manager and quickly earned a reputation for honesty and customer care. “Just go see Roddie,” people told their friends. “He’ll treat you right.”

In a documentary interview, Lester Tanner laughs and jokes that Edmonds had “probably never met a Jew in Knoxville.” Yet when the moment of truth came, Edmonds met it unflinchingly. 

Roddie Edmonds is the only American serviceman named in Yad Vashem’s “Righteous Among the Nations.” An honor he never sought and never lived to see. But through the memories of those he saved—and the children’s children who would never have been born without him—the story will endure for generations.

For WORLD, I’m Bethel McGrew.

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