The daily Astorian., September 23, 2016, WEEKEND EDITION, Page 3C, Image 21

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THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2016
CONSCIENTIOUS COURAGE
Hollywood inally tells story of bravest soldier in WWII who ever refused to ight
By DAVID PLECHL
EO Media Group
D
Associated Press
President Harry Truman presented Desmond Doss with the Congressional Medal of Honor.
esmond Thomas Doss was work-
ing at a naval shipyard when the U.S.
entered World War II. As a ship joiner
and a practicing Seventh Day Adventist, he was
offered a deferment, but instead chose to join
the war effort voluntarily, enlisting in the Army
soon after hostilities began.
Doss later explained his decision, saying,
“While I believe in the commandment ‘Thou
shalt not kill,’ and that bearing arms is a sin
against God, my belief in freedom is as great as
that of anyone else, and I had to help those boys
who were ighting for it.”
Rather than refer to himself as a conscien-
tious objector, Doss — whose son, Desmond
Doss Jr., lives in Ilwaco, Washington — pre-
ferred his own term, “conscientious cooperator,”
and asked to be assigned to medical duty where
he could save lives, not take them. He became a
company aid man, or medic, in the 307th Infan-
try Regiment, 77th Infantry Division.
Without ever picking up a weapon in war,
Doss’ heroics through some of the iercest ight-
ing in the Paciic would earn him the Medal of
Honor. He was the irst conscientious objector
to receive such recognition, and now, more than
70 years after he has been credited with saving
upwards of 75 men from near certain death, the
story of Doss’ moral and physical courage is
being told on the big screen, Hollywood style.
“Hacksaw Ridge,” directed by Mel Gibson,
opens in theaters in November nationwide.
Almost
unbelievable valor
Lionsgate
A movie poster for the upcoming film “Hacksaw Ridge,” by Mel Gibson, which is set for
nationwide release Nov. 4.
Born in Lynchburg to a family of strict Sev-
enth Day Adventists, Doss’ elevation from a
simple son of the South to a highly decorated
war hero did not come easy. Gibson’s ilm
appears to chronicle the dificult trajectory of
Doss’ life and his ultimate triumph.
Private Doss was said to be mocked for kneel-
ing next to his bunk to pray and often accused of
shirking his duty for refusing to handle a weapon.
His early days in the army were fraught with ver-
bal and physical abuse as Doss refused to work
on Saturday, the Sabbath, according to his reli-
gious beliefs. At one point, an oficer tried to
have Doss discharged on grounds of mental ill-
ness. All the while, Doss refused to bend.
If his fellow soldiers were confused about
Doss, it was ultimately in battle that he would
show them his true character.
In spring of 1945, Doss accompanied his fel-
low troops in a dramatic push to take a 400-foot-
high strategic ridge, the Maeda Escarpment,
known later to Army infantrymen as Hacksaw
Ridge. As thousands of U.S. soldiers swarmed
the high point, the Japanese launched a blinding
counterattack. Many of the Americans retreated,
but hundreds were left wounded and stranded
atop the ridge.
Private Doss remained and quickly began
fulilling what he saw as his duties to both his
fellow soldiers and to God. According to his
Medal of Honor citation, Doss “refused to seek
cover and remained in the ire-swept area with
the many stricken, carrying them one by one to
the edge of the escarpment and there lowering
them on a rope-supported litter down the face of
a cliff to friendly hands.”
He did it over and over. And that was just
one day.
Mark Rogers/Lionsgate
Andrew Garfield stars as Desmond Doss
in “Hacksaw Ridge,” an upcoming film di-
rected by Mel Gibson.
For weeks on end, Private Doss returned to
the thick of battle, and continued to save lives.
Under heavy machine gun ire, he rescued a
wounded soldier 200 yards in front of Amer-
ican lines. Days later, according to a Library
of Virginia biography and historical notes,
Doss made four trips under ire to save four
soldiers wounded within 25 feet of a heavily
defended cave. He was credited with carrying
another wounded soldier to safety hundreds of
yards under heavy shelling and small arms ire.
Later, after saving dozens more lives, a gre-
nade blast seriously injured Doss while he was
attending to wounded soldiers. Rather than
calling another medic away from the battle,
Doss dressed his own mangled legs and kept
working. Then, hours later, while Doss was
being carried from the scene, he leapt from his
stretcher and directed other medics to help a
more critically wounded soldier. In the chaos
that followed, Doss was hit by enemy ire.
With his arm fractured, he used a rile stock as
a splint — perhaps the only time he touched a
weapon — and then crawled 300 yards to an
aid station.
Doss was the irst conscientious objector to
win the Medal of Honor. He was promoted to
corporal and presented the award by President
Harry Truman along with 14 other men at the
White House in 1945. He rode a bus back to
Lynchburg a few weeks later, and was greeted
with a massive parade in his honor.
Peacetime and faith
The war and its wounds took a toll on
Doss and he spent six years in and out of vet-
eran’s hospitals. While recovering, he con-
tracted tuberculosis and had a lung and several
ribs removed. Later, he suddenly lost his hear-
ing. He was never again able to work a physi-
cally demanding job, but continued to stay very
active in the Seventh Day Adventist church and
he kept up a busy schedule of speaking engage-
ments and events.
Despite whatever recognition he received for
his heroic action in war, Doss — who died in
2004 at 86 — was always quick to divert the
credit.
“From a human standpoint, I shouldn’t be
here to tell the story,” Doss said in a 1998 inter-
view with the Richmond Times-Dispatch. “All
the glory goes to God. No telling how many
times the Lord has spared my life.”
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