A Peek Inside My Mind

On this day, 80 years ago, in May 1945, Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, 26 years old, was serving as a combat medic with Company B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division during the Battle of Okinawa. His unit was assigned to take the Maeda Escarpment, a steep, jagged cliff the Americans called “Hacksaw Ridge.”

The Japanese had turned the top of that ridge into a fortress. It was honeycombed with caves, tunnels, and concealed firing positions. On April 29, Doss and his company scaled the cargo nets up the cliff and pushed inland. Almost immediately, they encountered fierce resistance. Mortar shells, grenades, and machine gun fire rained down on them from concealed positions. The Americans launched several assaults over the following days, taking ground and then being pushed back again and again. The fighting was constant and brutal.

On May 5, his battalion launched another assault. They gained a foothold but by nightfall the unit was devastated by a Japanese counterattack. Dozens of men were wounded and left stranded on the top of the escarpment. The rest of the battalion was forced to withdraw, climbing back down the cliff to regroup. Desmond Doss refused to leave.

Alone on top of the ridge, with enemy soldiers still nearby, Doss spent the entire night crawling from one wounded man to another. Each time he found someone alive, he dragged or carried them to the edge of the escarpment. There, using a rope and a makeshift sling knot he had learned as a boy, he lowered them one by one to safety. He exposed himself to enemy fire over and over again. He was unarmed. He carried no weapon. The Japanese could see him moving but didn’t realize he was a medic until it was too late. In some cases, he treated enemy soldiers as well.

Throughout the night, he kept working. He prayed each time before going back out: “Lord, please help me get one more.” By the time the sun came up, he had lowered an estimated 75 wounded men off the escarpment. Some said it was closer to 100. Doss himself later said he believed it was 50. His commanding officers split the difference. The Army credited him with saving 75 men in one night, alone, under fire, without a weapon.

Over the next days, he remained on the line. On May 21, while moving through a shell hole, he was hit by a grenade blast. Shrapnel tore through his legs. He treated his own wounds and waited five hours before stretcher bearers could reach him. While being carried back to the rear, his unit came under sniper fire. Doss saw another man seriously wounded and rolled off his stretcher, insisting the other man be taken first. He then crawled 300 yards to the aid station. A few days later, he was hit again, this time by a sniper’s bullet that shattered his arm. He fashioned a splint out of a rifle stock and crawled back to safety.

For his actions at Hacksaw Ridge and in the days that followed, Desmond Doss received the Medal of Honor from President Harry S. Truman on October 12, 1945. He was the first conscientious objector in American history to receive the Medal of Honor. He also received two Bronze Stars for actions on Guam and Leyte, and three Purple Hearts.

After the war, Doss suffered from tuberculosis he contracted in the Pacific. He lost a lung and five ribs and spent years recovering. Despite long-term health problems, he lived quietly in Georgia with his wife and son until his death in 2006. He was buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery in Tennessee.