![]() ![]() Hour after hour, as explosions rang constantly in his ears, he tied tourniquets. Amidst never-ending gunfire and mortar shells, Doss treated the wounded American soldiers that others may have left for dead. In an act that still astounds the surviving members of Doss’s company today, the fearless medic held his ground at the plateau. But the Japanese didn’t know that the Americans had Desmond Doss. The Japanese army’s plan of waiting until all of the Americans reached the plateau to open fire created a devastating amount of wounded soldiers. It was a particularly grueling onslaught with artillery coming so fast and furious that it was literally ripping men in half. Then came the battle at the Okinawa Maeda Escarpment, or what the Americans called “Hacksaw Ridge.” It fell on May 5, 1945, a Saturday - Doss’s day of Sabbath. Wikimedia Commons Marines destroy a Japanese cave during the Battle of Okinawa. All he wanted was to prove those two tasks weren’t mutually exclusive. He resolutely believed that his purpose was to serve both God and country. Yet, over and over, Doss not only dismissed their cruel behavior, he rose above it. Without a defense weapon, the others insisted, Doss was useless to them. They hated him for getting a pass on the Sabbath because to work on the holy day was against his religion - never mind that the officers gave Doss all the worst work to complete by himself on Sundays. They launched their boots at him while he prayed by his bunk at night. They teased him mercilessly to “man up” and carry a rifle. But his fellow soldiers in training camp still couldn’t understand why Doss was there. “He just didn’t fit into the Army’s model of what a good soldier would be,” said Terry Benedict, a filmmaker who made The Conscientious Objector, a documentary about Doss in 2004.ĭoss appealed the Army’s decision up through the ranks until they begrudgingly made him a medic. The Army assigned him to a rifle company instead in hopes that he’d just leave. May 1945.īut the fact that he refused to carry a weapon - let alone kill anyone - earned him the widely unflattering label of “conscientious objector.” It was a label that Doss hated, and instead of flat-out refusing to perform military service, he insisted that he work as a medic. Wikimedia Commons Marines in combat during the Battle of Okinawa. When World War II broke out, Doss jumped at the opportunity to aid the cause. Years later, this physical resilience is what helped enable him to earn the Medal of Honor.Īt age 18, Doss dutifully registered for the draft and worked at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. He said that Desmond wasn’t much fun to wrestle with because you could never win - not because Desmond was particularly skilled, but because he’d never surrender and didn’t know how to give up. Instead, Doss spent his childhood doing things like flattening pennies on the railway near his Lynchburg, Virginia home and wrestling with his younger brother, Harold. He was so shaken, he vowed that was the last time he would ever hold a weapon. 45 pistol from her husband and told young Doss to run and hide it. Doss’s hatred of weapons stemmed from watching his drunken father pull a gun on his uncle during an argument, and from his religious beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. ![]() A few days later, Desmond traveled down the same long stretch of road to give more.Īlso at a young age, Doss developed a hatred of weapons that would persist throughout his life, even during his time in combat. When he was a child, for example, he once walked six miles to donate blood to an accident victim - a complete stranger - after hearing about the need for blood on a local radio station. Last year, the Academy Award-winning film Hacksaw Ridge brought Desmond Doss to the attention of countless people who’d heard neither the man’s name nor his incredible story ever before.įrom a young age, Desmond Doss (born February 7, 1919) radiated the kind of empathy that he’d display as a soldier later in life. The young World War II medic who singlehandedly saved the lives of 75 American soldiers on the Maeda Escarpment of Okinawa in 1945 would say only that he did what was right - that he never carried a weapon of any kind because he was in the business of saving lives, not taking them. If you were to call him a hero, Desmond Doss would’ve likely corrected you. ![]()
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