The last act of Army Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis, 24, was to step between an Afghan suicide bomber and a Polish army officer — taking the force of the blast and sacrificing his own life to save another. Now, 13 years later, he’ll receive the military’s highest award for his valor, according to his parents.
Robert Ollis, Michael’s father, confirmed to Military Times via phone that he and Michael’s mother Linda had received a call from President Donald Trump Tuesday night confirming Ollis was approved for the award. The infantryman from Staten Island had previously been awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, the Army’s second-highest combat honor, for his actions.
Robert Ollis said the call with the president was “bittersweet.”
“We wanted this for Michael, but being his father, I want my son back,” he said. Beyond that, though, he added, “This is the best.”
“Our prayers have been answered,” Ollis continued. “There is a God, and if you keep annoying him, He’ll come through.”
The White House did not respond to a query seeking confirmation of the award.
Robert Ollis said he’d heard from the Pentagon on Wednesday morning that the news had not been intended for announcement yet. No date has been confirmed for the award ceremony, Ollis said.
Ollis has become something of a symbol of the power of military alliances. In Camp Kościuszko in Poznan, Poland, a mess hall named after Ollis — the “SSG Michael H. Ollis Warrior Grill” — honors his memory and sacrifice, according to a 2024 Army news release.
In an even more meaningful tribute, the Polish soldier Ollis saved, Lt. Karol Cierpica, would name his son Michael in honor of the fallen soldier.
According to previous Military Times reporting, Ollis, assigned to the 10th Mountain Division’s 2nd Battalion, 22nd Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, had been posted at Forward Operating Base Ghazni in Afghanistan’s Ghazni province on Aug. 28, 2013, when the base was breached by a car bomb. The breach allowed for 10 enemy fighters wearing suicide vests to make their way inside the outer wall. More insurgents pelted the base with mortars and grenades from outside.
According to Ollis’s medal citation, he accounted for his soldiers and checked for casualties before running toward the enemy assault. He linked up with Cierpica and they moved toward the attackers and began to engage them “without their personal protection equipment and armed only with their rifles.”
“While fighting along the perimeter of the forward operating base, an insurgent came around a corner and immediately engaged them with small arms fire,” Ollis’s citation reads. “With complete disregard for his own safety, Staff Sergeant Ollis positioned himself between the insurgent and [Cierpica] who had been wounded in both legs and was unable to walk. Staff Sergeant Ollis fired on the insurgent and incapacitated him, but as he approached the insurgent, the insurgent’s suicide vest detonated, mortally wounding him.”
Tom Sileo, whose 2024 book “I Have Your Back” documented Ollis’ story and heroism, told Military Times in a Wednesday interview that he’d initially connected with the Ollis family in 2014 and stayed in touch with them over the years.
“From the first moment I heard about the story and read about it, the fact that he had saved a foreign soldier’s life and lost his own life in the process … that really jumped out at me,” Sileo said. “I thought it said a lot about our alliances and and about the heroism, of course, of these brave men and women of our military, that they’d be willing to lay their lives down for someone from a different country, and in this case, somebody that that I came to learn through research that Michael really had only encountered a few minutes before he saved his life.”
The Ollis family, Sileo said, had been contacting officials for years about upgrading Michael’s award to the Medal of Honor. Sileo said he had corresponded for years about the matter with now-Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, beginning when he was a Fox News host. He credited Eric Geressy, senior adviser to the Secretary of Defense for Strategy and a retired Army infantryman from Staten Island, for throwing his weight behind the effort as well.
“Michael earned this by what he did on Aug. 28, 2013, but Eric Geressy in particular deserves a ton of credit for making this happen,” Sileo said.
Ollis’s award news comes shortly after the release of the 2026 National Defense Strategy, which emphasized burden-sharing with European allies and chastised some for “irresponsible choices” in protecting their own security. Sileo emphasized that Ollis’s 2013 actions far preceded the current administration and cautioned against making political inferences. But, he said, the story was still significant for today’s climate.
“Maybe this can remind those in charge of how important those alliances are, and what a beautiful way for Michael’s legacy to live on,” Sileo said. “And that’s my hope that the medal… can become something even greater that reminds those in charge of how important these alliances are.”
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