Corporal
Desmond Doss
Doss, photographed prior to receiving the Medal of Honor in October 1945
Birth nameDesmond Thomas Doss
Born(1919-02-07)February 7, 1919
Lynchburg, Virginia, U.S.
DiedMarch 23, 2006(2006-03-23) (aged 87)
Piedmont, Alabama, U.S.
BuriedChattanooga National Cemetery, Chattanooga, Tennessee
Allegiance United States of America
Branch United States Army
Service years1942–1946
Rank Corporal
Service number33158036
UnitCompany B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry Regiment, 77th Infantry Division
Conflicts
Awards Medal of Honor
Bronze Star Medal (2)
Purple Heart (3)
Spouses
  • Dorothy Schutte ​ ​(m. 1942; died 1991)​
  • Frances Duman ​(m. 1993)​
Children1

Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006)[1] was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II. Due to his religious beliefs, he refused to carry a weapon.

He was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions on Guam and in the Philippines. Doss further distinguished himself in the Battle of Okinawa by saving an estimated 75 men,[a] acting on his own, becoming the first of only three conscientious objectors to receive the Medal of Honor for this and other actions, the others being Thomas W. Bennett and Joseph G. LaPointe Jr., who were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.

His life has been the subject of books, the 2004 documentary The Conscientious Objector, and the 2016 Oscar-winning film Hacksaw Ridge, in which he was portrayed by Andrew Garfield.

Early life

Desmond Thomas Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, to William Thomas Doss (1893–1989), a carpenter, and Bertha Edward Doss (née Oliver) (1899–1983), a homemaker and shoe factory worker.[3][4][5] William Doss registered for the draft between 1917 and 1918 in Lynchburg, Virginia, as part of the Selective Service System.[6] His mother raised him as a devout Seventh-day Adventist and instilled Sabbath-keeping, nonviolence, and vegetarianism in his upbringing.[7] He grew up in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, alongside his older sister Audrey and younger brother Harold.[5]

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.[5] Before the outbreak of World War II, Doss was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia.[5]

World War II

Despite being offered a draft deferment because of his shipyard work, Doss refused it out of patriotic reasons, and was inducted into the Army on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia.[8][9][10] He was sent to Fort Jackson, South Carolina, for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division. Meanwhile, his brother Harold served aboard the USS Lindsey.[11]

Doss refused to carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist against killing.[12] He consequently became a medic assigned to the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.

While serving with his platoon in 1944 in Guam and the Philippines, he was awarded two Bronze Star Medals with a "V" device,[13] for exceptional valor in aiding wounded soldiers under fire. During the Battle of Okinawa, he saved the lives of 50–100 wounded infantrymen atop the area known by the 96th Division as the Maeda Escarpment or Hacksaw Ridge.[14] Doss was wounded four times in Okinawa,[15] and was evacuated on May 21, 1945, aboard the USS Mercy.[16] Doss suffered a left arm fracture from a sniper's bullet while being carried back to Allied lines and at one point had 17 pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body after attempting to kick a grenade away from himself and his comrades.[16] He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Okinawa.[17]

Post-war life

After the war, Doss wanted to continue his career in carpentry but extensive damage to his left arm made that impossible.[5] In 1946, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, contracted on Leyte.[16] He underwent treatment for five and a half years — losing a lung and five ribs — before being discharged from the hospital in August 1951 with 90% disability.[18]

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.[3][16] Despite his injuries, he managed to raise a family on a small farm in Rising Fawn, Georgia.[16]

Doss married Dorothy Pauline Schutte on August 17, 1942, and they had one child, Desmond "Tommy" Doss Jr., born in 1946. Desmond, Jr. followed in his father's footsteps, serving as an army medic, then as a firefighter and paramedic.[16][19][20] On November 17, 1991, Dorothy died in a car accident that happened while Doss was driving her to the hospital for cancer treatment.[16] Doss remarried on July 1, 1993, to Frances May Duman.[1][3]

After being hospitalized for difficulty breathing, Doss died on March 23, 2006, at his home in Piedmont, Alabama.[21] He was buried on April 3, 2006, in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, Tennessee.[22] Frances died three years later on February 3, 2009, at the Piedmont Health Care Center in Piedmont, Alabama.[23]

Awards and decorations

Medal of Honor

Rank and organization: Private First Class, United States Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.

Place and date: Near Urasoe Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, April 29, 1945 – May 21, 1945.

Entered service at: Lynchburg, Virginia

Birth: Lynchburg, Virginia

G.O. No.: 97, November 1, 1945.

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, March 3, 1863, has awarded in the name of The Congress the MEDAL OF HONOR to

PRIVATE FIRST CLASS DESMOND T. DOSS
UNITED STATES ARMY

for service as set forth in the following

Citation: Private First Class Desmond T. Doss, United States Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Near Urasoe-Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 29 April – 21 May 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 machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Private First Class Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them 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 2 May, 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 two days later he treated four 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 four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On 5 May, 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, Private First Class 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 21 May, 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 five hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Private First Class 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, 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 Private First Class 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.

October 12, 1945
THE WHITE HOUSE[24]

Other awards and decorations

[25]

Combat Medical Badge
Medal of Honor Bronze Star Medal with 1 oak leaf cluster
Purple Heart with 2 oak leaf clusters Good Conduct Medal American Campaign Medal
Asiatic–Pacific Campaign Medal with arrowhead device and 3 3⁄16" bronze stars World War II Victory Medal Philippine Liberation Medal with 1 3⁄16" bronze service star
Army Presidential Unit Citation Meritorious Unit Commendation
77th Infantry Division SSI

Other honors and recognition

In media

Television and film

On February 18, 1959, Doss appeared on the Ralph Edwards NBC TV show This Is Your Life.[39]

Doss is the subject of The Conscientious Objector, a 2004 documentary by Terry Benedict.

The 2016 feature film Hacksaw Ridge, based on his life, was produced by Terry Benedict and directed by Mel Gibson, with Andrew Garfield portraying him.[40] Garfield was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance.[41]

Doss was profiled in a three-part TV series by It Is Written in November 2016.[42]

Print

Doss is the subject of four biographical books:

See also

Notes

  1. Although the exact number is unknown, estimates range from 50 to 100 since 55 of the 155 soldiers involved in the action were able to retreat without assistance.[2]

References

  1. Bernstein, Adam (March 26, 2006). "Lauded Conscientious Objector Desmond T. Doss Sr". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on December 15, 2017.
  2. "Desmond T. Doss". HomeOfHeroes.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2016.
  3. "Desmond T. Doss". collegedale-americanlegion.org. Archived from the original on November 29, 2014.
  4. Miller, Mike (November 5, 2016). "Hacksaw Ridge: The True Story of Desmond Doss". Peoplemag. Archived from the original on January 18, 2017.
  5. Schkloven, Emma (November 5, 2016). "Desmond Doss, an American hero". The News & Advance. Archived from the original on August 7, 2019.
  6. United States. (1917–1918). World War I draft registration cards [Database record for William Thomas Doss]. FamilySearch. Retrieved April 29, 2025, from https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:7FZN-BYZM
  7. Patrick, Bethanne Kelly. "Seventh-Day Adventist Saved Fellow Soldiers on Sabbath". Military.com. Archived from the original on August 11, 2001..
  8. "The Conscientious Objector". YouTube. March 2004. Archived from the original on January 14, 2017.
  9. "WWII Army Enlistment Records". National Archives. Archived from the original on June 20, 2015.
  10. "34 Men Leave This Morning for Induction". The News. Lynchburg, Virginia. April 1, 1942.
  11. "In Memory of Harold Edward Doss". Brown Funeral Home. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016.
  12. "Who was Desmond Doss of Hacksaw Ridge". Bibleinfo.com. Archived from the original on December 1, 2016.
  13. "bronze star Archives – Faith of Doss". Faith of Doss. October 26, 2016. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017.
  14. Appleman; Burns; Giegler; Stevens. "Chapter XI Assaulting The Second Shuri Defense Ring". HyperWar: US Army in WWII: Okinawa: The Last Battle. Archived from the original on March 9, 2017.
  15. "Private First Class Desmond T. Doss Interview". March 20, 1987. Archived from the original on November 8, 2016.
  16. "Hacksaw Ridge (2016)". HistoryvsHollywood.com. Archived from the original on November 18, 2016.
  17. McDowell, Eulalie (October 12, 1945). "Medal of Honor Winner Says Feat was Miracle". The Knoxville News-Sentinel. Knoxville, Tennessee. United Press Staff. p. 2 – via Newspapers.com.
  18. Herndon, Booton (1967). The Unlikeliest Hero: The Story of Desmond T. Doss, Conscientious Objector, who Won His Nation's Highest Military Honor. Boise, Idaho: Pacific Press Publishing Association. p. 182. ISBN 978-0-8163-2048-6. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018.
  19. Lopez, Kenny (November 10, 2016). "Son of 'Hacksaw Ridge' war hero Desmond Doss talks about his dad". WGNO.com.
  20. "Desmond Doss Jr. Highlights His Mother's Influence Alongside War Hero Father – Adventist Today". November 11, 2023.
  21. Goldstein, Richard (March 25, 2006). "Desmond T. Doss, 87, Heroic War Objector, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 19, 2016.
  22. "'Unlikeliest Hero' buried with 21-gun salute". NBC News. Associated Press. April 4, 2006. Archived from the original on September 27, 2016.
  23. "Doss, Frances May Widow of Congressional Medal of Honor Winner". Chattanoogan.com. February 4, 2009.
  24. "The Medal of Honor". desmonddoss.com. Archived from the original on July 31, 2017.
  25. Herndon, Booton (2016). Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge. Remnant Publications. p. Foreword. ISBN 978-1-629131-55-9. Archived from the original on February 6, 2018.
  26. "Memorial ride honors Lynchburg military hero Desmond Doss". November 2, 2016. Archived from the original on March 16, 2017.
  27. Judy Putnam (February 28, 2017). "Camp Doss in Grand Ledge named for war hero in 'Hacksaw Ridge'". Lansing State Journal.
  28. "History of Desmond Doss". Desmond T. Doss Christian Academy. Archived from the original on October 21, 2016.
  29. "Remembering visits from Mr. Desmond T. Doss, the man for whom our school is named – Desmond T. Doss Christian Academy". May 17, 2016. Archived from the original on August 13, 2016.
  30. "Walker County". Calhoun Times. September 1, 2004. p. 108.
  31. "HR 206 – Doss, Desmond T.; invite to House – Fulltext". March 14, 2000. Archived from the original on August 3, 2016.
  32. "Desmond Doss Sculpture Unveiled at Veterans Memorial Park". Adventist Review. uccsda.org. May 14, 2007. Archived from the original on August 7, 2008.
  33. "Guest House named after Medal of Honor recipient". WRAMC News Releases. July 17, 2008. Archived from the original on June 15, 2011.
  34. Debra Flax (May 26, 2013). "Warrior without a weapon: Remembering Desmond Doss Sr". The Anniston Star. Archived from the original on December 1, 2017.
  35. "Desmond Doss' Hacksaw Ridge Heroics and School Honored". October 30, 2016. Archived from the original on October 31, 2016.
  36. "PETA awards Lynchburg hero Desmond Doss the Hero to Animals award". February 7, 2017. Archived from the original on February 13, 2017.
  37. "U.S. Army Health Clinic Dedicated in Honor of Cpl. Desmond Doss". www.army.mil. May 8, 2019.
  38. Alachnowicz, Michael (October 12, 2020). "Plaque dedication cements Desmond T. Doss legacy at childhood home". wdbj7.com.
  39. "This Is Your Life Episode List". Jim Davidson's Classic TV Info. Archived from the original on March 24, 2008.
  40. Whipp, Glenn (January 5, 2017). "Why does director Mel Gibson see 'Hacksaw Ridge' as a love story?". Los Angeles Times.
  41. Nordyke, Kimberly; Lewis, Hilary (January 24, 2017). "Oscars: 'La La Land' Ties Record With 14 Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter.
  42. "Series on the Hero of Hacksaw Ridge". Hope Channel. October 31, 2016. Archived from the original on September 25, 2017.
  43. Doss, Frances M. (2015). Desmond Doss Conscientious Objector: The Story of an Unlikely Hero. Pacific Press Publishing Association. ISBN 978-0816321247.
  44. Herndon, Booton (2016). Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge: The Gripping True Story That Inspired The Movie. Remnant Publications. ISBN 978-1629131559.
  45. Crosby, Gregory (November 13, 2017). The Birth of Hacksaw Ridge: How It All Began. Make-Believe Entertainment. ISBN 9781389372988. Archived from the original on December 22, 2017 – via Blurb.

Further reading

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