Army Staff Sgt. Michael H. Ollis, a New York City native who was killed in Afghanistan in 2013 after stepping between a suicide bomber and a Polish officer, has been approved for the Medal of Honor, according to his family. No date has been announced for the ceremony.
Ollis was 24 when he died Aug. 28, 2013, during an attack on Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Ghazni province. His father, Robert Ollis, said the family learned of the decision in a phone call from President Donald Trump, calling the news “bittersweet” as it brings recognition without bringing their son back.
Ollis enlisted in 2006 at age 17 and served with the 1st Armored Division in Germany, deployed to Iraq in 2008, and with the 101st Airborne in Kentucky. In 2013, he deployed to Afghanistan with the 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division.
In the final days of that 2013 deployment, Ollis was a newly promoted squad leader in B Company’s 2nd Platoon as the unit passed through FOB Ghazni, a coalition base commanded by the Polish military. While Ollis was inside the base’s morale, welfare, and recreation facility, Ghazni was hit by a large, coordinated assault.
It began with a massive, 3,600-pound car bomb breaching the base, then a number of attackers made their way in with small arms, rocket-propelled grenades, and suicide vests. From outside the FOB, insurgents lobbed mortars and grenades.
As coalition forces fought to keep the FOB Ghazni from being overrun, Ollis checked on his soldiers and looked for casualties before he charged toward the fighting. He linked up with Polish officer 2nd Lt. Karol Cierpica. Together, Ollis and Cierpica fought on without protective equipment, armed only with their rifles.
As they fought along the perimeter, another attacker wearing a suicide vest closed in. Ollis moved himself in front of Cierpica, who had been badly wounded by shrapnel, to engage the oncoming insurgent. Ollis downed the attacker, but the vest detonated. The blast mortally wounded Ollis, but Cierpica survived.
Ollis’ valor had been recognized by the Army before the Medal of Honor approval. He was initially awarded the Silver Star, and that award was later upgraded to the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest award for valor. Poland posthumously awarded him the Polish Army Gold Medal in 2013.
Cierpica would also name his son “Michael,” to honor Ollis’ sacrifice.
“It’s painful to relive it,” Ollis’ father, Robert, said at his Distinguished Service Cross ceremony in 2019. “I’ve been approached many times by people who say, ‘How the hell do you do it?’ and I don’t know. But I think like Karol, through the tears, we have to tell the story of Karol and Mike.”
