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On October 12, 1945, Desmond Doss became the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions during the bloodiest battle of the Pacific theater of World War II. And he never touched a rifle.
--On This Day in History, Shit Went Down: October 12, 1945--
Doss was a religious man. I spoke with Desmond’s only child, Tommy, who grew up hearing his father’s story. We discussed a picture that hung on the wall of his father’s childhood home in Lynchburg, Virginia. “It depicted the 10 Commandments,” Tommy said. “Each commandment had a little drawing, and the sixth said, ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill,’ and it showed a picture of Cain after he killed his brother Abel. He would gaze at it again and again.”
The defining moment for the rest of Desmond Doss’s life arrived when the image of Cain killing Abel almost became real before his eyes. Desmond’s father was a decorated veteran of World War I who suffered from PTSD, and he almost shot Desmond’s uncle during a drunken argument. Desmond’s mother grabbed the gun and told her son to hide it. Afterward, Desmond swore he’d never touch a gun again.
In 1942, with war ravaging the world, Doss registered for the draft and was called up. His shipyard work qualified him for a deferment, but he wanted to do his part. “I felt like it was an honor to serve God and country.” His desire was not to take lives but save them.
He was classified as a conscientious objector, a designation he didn’t want; he considered himself a “conscientious cooperator.” The army tried to break him. Despite his designation, he was assigned to a rifle company; his request to be a medic was refused. Doss was abused by his fellow soldiers and given the worst duties.
In May 1945, despite suffering from tuberculosis, Doss was with the 96th Division as it attacked the Maeda Escarpment, nicknamed “Hacksaw Ridge,” on Okinawa. After a vicious counterattack by Japanese forces, the Americans retreated back down a sheer cliff using cargo nets. Less than one-third of the men made it back down. Doss stayed behind.
Through the rest of that day and night, at constant risk of death from patrolling Japanese soldiers, Doss searched for his wounded comrades who were left for dead. He treated their wounds, dragged or carried them to the edge of the cliff, and fashioned a rope harness to lower them to safety. Without a weapon to protect himself, he repeated this more than 75 times.
When American forces went back up the ridge, Doss was with them. He was severely wounded in that action but survived and lived to be 87. One of the many lives Doss saved was that of his captain, Jack Glover, who had tried to get him transferred to a conscientious objector camp during training. Glover later said of Doss, “He was one of the bravest persons alive.”
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