A Fort Drum soldier and Staten Island native killed in action will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, the White House announced Wednesday.
Staff Sgt. Michael Ollis was in Afghanistan in August 2013 when he noticed a wounded Polish officer, Lt. Karol Cierpica, and a suicide bomber. Ollis used himself as a shield, giving up his life to save Cierpicas.
Fort Drum and the U.S. Army awarded Ollis a Silver Star a few months after he died.
In 2015, Cierpica and his wife gave birth to a son and named him Michael after Ollis.
Ollis has also been honored by SSG Michael H. Ollis, one of three Ollis-class passenger ferries on the Staten Island Ferry.