Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006) was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II. He was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions in Guam and the Philippines. Doss further distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving 75 men, becoming the only conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor during World War II. His life has been the subject of books, the documentary The Conscientious Objector , and the critically acclaimed 2016 film Hacksaw Ridge .

Early life

  Desmond Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, to William Thomas Doss (1893–1989), [16] a carpenter, and Bertha Edward Doss (née Oliver) (1899–1983), [18] a homemaker and shoe factory worker. [20] [24] [26] His mother raised him as a devout Seventh-day Adventist and instilled Sabbath-keeping, nonviolence, and a vegetarian lifestyle in his upbringing. He grew up in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, Virginia, alongside his older sister Audrey and younger brother Harold. [26] Doss attended the Park Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church school until the eighth grade, and subsequently found a job at the Lynchburg Lumber Company to support his family during the Great Depression. [26]

World War II service

  Before the outbreak of World War II, Doss was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia. [26] Doss entered military service, despite being offered a deferment for his shipyard work, on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia. [35] He was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, his brother Harold served aboard the USS Lindsey. [37] Doss refused to kill an enemy soldier or carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist. [39] He consequently became a medic assigned to 2nd Platoon, B Company, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. While serving with his platoon in 1944 on Guam and the Philippines, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals with a "V" device, [41] for exceptional valor in aiding wounded soldiers under fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, he saved the lives of 75 wounded infantrymen atop the area known by the 96th Division as the Maeda Escarpment or Hacksaw Ridge. [45] Doss was wounded four times in Okinawa, [48] and was evacuated on May 21, 1945, aboard the USS Mercy. [51] He was subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Okinawa. Subsequent life   After the war, Doss initially planned to continue his career in carpentry, but extensive damage to his arm left him unable to do so. [26] In 1946, Doss was diagnosed with tuberculosis, which he had contracted on Leyte. [51] He subsequently underwent treatment for five and a half years – which cost him a lung and five ribs – before being discharged from the hospital in August 1951 with 90% disability. Doss continued to receive treatment from the military, but after an overdose of antibiotics rendered him completely deaf in 1976, he was given 100% disability; he was able to regain his hearing after receiving a cochlear implant in 1988. [51] [51] Despite the severity of his injuries, Doss managed to raise a family on a small farm in Rising Fawn, Georgia. [51] Doss married Dorothy Pauline Schutte on August 17, 1942, and they had one child, Desmond "Tommy" Doss Jr., born in 1946. [51] Dorothy died on November 17, 1991, from a car accident. [51] Doss remarried on July 1, 1993, to Frances May Duman. [16] [16] After being hospitalized for difficulty breathing, Doss died on March 23, 2006, at his home in Piedmont, Alabama. [10] He was buried on April 3, 2006, in the National Cemetery in Chattanooga, Tennessee.