This is not a story about 1960s hippydom, when the kids flashed
peace signs talked free-love making and dope-taking. Nor, is it a story about “presidential”
candidates.
For me this is personal because this is a story about one of
my heroes and his unshakable belief in love, faith, and life.
Desmond Doss, an “everyday Joe”, who under the most horrendous
conditions imaginable stayed to treat his wounded and exposed himself to enemy
fire countless time to evacuate them to safety. For love of his comrades, he could
not leave them.
Desmond Doss
Conscientious Objector
Company Aid Man (Medic)
Congressional Medal of Honor
His citation:
Place and date: Near Urasoe Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu
Islands , April 29, 1945 – May 21, 1945.
He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a
jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy
concentration of artillery, mortar and machine gun fire crashed into them,
inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss
refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many
stricken, carrying all 75 casualties 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. On May 2, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in
rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment;
and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a
strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight
yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds
before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On May 5,
he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an
artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that
offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells
fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an
American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him
where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried
him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On May 21, in
a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory
while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he
would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured
until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a
grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own
injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started
carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc.
Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and
directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting
the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, by a sniper bullet while being
carried off the field by a comrade, this time suffering a compound fracture of
one arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm
as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of
desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers.
His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding
gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.
Yes, Hollywood has a movie coming out about Desmond Doss. But here is the story, from This is Your Life.
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