The Hero of Hacksaw Ridge

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In April 1942, Desmond Doss was drafted into U.S. Army even though he would never wield a weapon. Granted conscientious objector status, he declined to bear arms because of religious principles.

Doss trained as an Army combat medic. But his refusal to carry a gun in the infantry rifle company to which he’d been assigned caused trouble among his fellow soldiers. They viewed him with distain and called him a misfit. One man threatened him, “Doss, as soon as we get into combat, I’ll make sure you won’t come back alive.”

His commanding officers, considering him a liability, wanted to get rid of Doss and made his life difficult. They tried to intimidate and scold him, assigned him extra duties, and declared him mentally unfit for the army. They ostracized and bullied him. Then they attempted to court martial him for refusing a direct order—to carry a gun. But they failed to discharge him, and he refused to leave. 

Doss’s status began to improve when his colleagues discovered that he could heal the blisters on their feet. And if a guy fainted from heat stroke, Doss flew to his side, offering his own canteen. Doss never held a grudge. When someone yelled “medic” on the battlefield, Doss cared nothing for his own safety, running into battle to treat a fallen comrade and carry him to safety amid bullets’ whizzing past and mortar shells exploding around him. Several times while treating a wounded soldier, Doss could hear the Japanese whispering, so close was he to enemy lines. 

On Okinawa in the spring of 1945, the men in Doss’s division tried repeatedly to capture the Maeda Escarpment, a 400-foot rock face they dubbed Hacksaw Ridge. The Japanese defended it to the last man as it was the sole remaining barrier to an allied invasion of their homeland. On May 5, the Americans secured the top of the cliff, but enemy forces rushed them in a sudden counterattack. Officers ordered an immediate retreat and the men scurried down the ridge. Less than one-third of them made it: The rest lay wounded or dead on enemy soil. Doss, however, disobeyed orders and charged into the firefight, carrying his colleagues, one by one and lowering each man on a makeshift rope-supported litter he tied to a tree stump. By this grueling method, he rescued75 men.

Days after the Americans finally took the ridge, capturing Okinawa, Doss was wounded in a night raid. Hiding in a shell hole with two riflemen, a Japanese grenade landed at his feet, sending him flying. The shrapnel tore into his leg and up his hip. He treated his own wounds as best he could and tried to reach safety before a sniper’s bullet shattered his arm. He crawled 300 yards to an aid station. 

Doss saw combat on Guam, Leyte, and Okinawa and received many medals, including America’s highest award for bravery, the Congressional Medal of Honor. Of the 16 million Americans in uniform during World War II, only 431 received this medal. And Doss, true to his creed, had not killed a single enemy soldier.