Seventy years ago today, U.S. Army Corporal Desmond Doss, a conscientious objector, was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Truman. Doss, a devout Seventh-Day Adventist, was drafted in 1942. Because of his religious beliefs, he refused to kill or carry a weapon. He was made a medic in the Pacific Theatre.
When his battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment, it was met by a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar, and machine gun fire, resulting in 75 casualties. Doss refused to seek cover, cared for the men, and carried all 75 casualties, one by one, to the edge of the escaprment where he lowered them on a rope-supported litter. His heroics continued on subesequent days when he rescued injured men forward of the lines.
He was subsequently injured by a grenade, but rather than risking another aid man’s life, he treated his own wounds and waited five hours before litter bearers reached him. Upon seeing a more critically injured man, he crawled from the litter and directed the litter bearers to care for that man first. He was then struck by a sniper’s bullet, suffering a compound fracture. He splinted his own wound before crawling to the aid station.
Shortly before leaving the army, Doss was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which eventually cost him a lung. Doss died in 2006 at the age of 87.
