Blood had run down into the fella’s face and eyes. He was laying there just groaning and calling for a medic. I took water from my canteen, got some bandages, and I washed his face. And when that blood was washed from his eyes, his eyes came open. Man, he just lit up. He says, “I thought I was blind.” And if I hadn’t got anything more out of the war than that smile he gave me, I’d have been well repaid–from The Conscientious Objector, 2004
So spoke Desmond T. Doss, the only person while serving as a “conscientious objector” ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor, an award whose raison d’etre reads as follows:
[The] U.S. service members [must have] distinguish[ed] themselves “through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of life above and beyond the call of duty.
Desmond T. Doss served as a medic during the Battle of Okinawa and at the Battle of Hacksaw Ridge (He was 26 years old at the time). His bravery was credited with saving the lives of seventy-five of his countrymen, and–in subsequent testimony and recordings–even those men who’d previously mocked and ridiculed his behavior and his refusal to carry a weapon as shameful and cowardly spoke up for him. One of them was his Captain, Jack Glover:
Doss saved 75 men — including his captain, Jack Glover — over a 12-hour period. The same soldiers who had shamed him now praised him. “He was one of the bravest persons alive,” Glover says in the documentary. “And then to have him end up saving my life was the irony of the whole thing.”
From the Wikipedia post–although you’re welcome to review and look up the references contained in the original:
While serving with his platoon in 1944 in Guam and the Philippines, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals with a “V” device, for exceptional valor in aiding wounded soldiers under fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, he saved the lives of 50–100 wounded infantrymen atop the area known by the 96th Division as the Maeda Escarpment or Hacksaw Ridge. Doss was wounded four times in Okinawa, and was evacuated on May 21, 1945, aboard the USS Mercy. Doss suffered a left arm fracture from a sniper’s bullet while being carried back to Allied lines and at one point had seventeen pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body after attempting to kick a grenade away from himself and his comrades. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Okinawa.
President Harry Truman signed off on, and awarded, Desmond T. Doss the Medal of Honor seventy-eight years ago today on October 12, 1946.
Rest in peace, American Hero.
