1. Desmond Thomas Doss was a United States Army corporal who served as a combat medic with an infantry company in World War II.
25 Facts About Desmond Doss
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Desmond Doss was twice awarded the Bronze Star Medal for actions on Guam and in the Philippines.
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Desmond Doss's 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.
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Desmond Thomas Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia, to William Thomas Doss, a carpenter, and Bertha Edward Doss, a homemaker and shoe factory worker.
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Desmond Doss's father served in the Army during World War I, he was awarded the Silver Star, and he later suffered from PTSD.
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Desmond Doss's mother raised him as a devout Seventh-day Adventist and instilled Sabbath-keeping, nonviolence, and vegetarianism in his upbringing.
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Desmond Doss grew up in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, alongside his older sister Audrey and younger brother Harold.
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Desmond Doss chose military service, despite being offered a deferment because of his shipyard work, on April 1,1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia.
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Desmond Doss was sent to Fort Jackson in South Carolina for training with the reactivated 77th Infantry Division.
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Desmond Doss refused to carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist against killing.
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Desmond Doss consequently became a medic assigned to the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.
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Desmond 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.
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Desmond Doss was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Okinawa.
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On November 17,1991, Dorothy died in a car accident that happened while Desmond Doss was driving her to the hospital for cancer treatment.
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Desmond Doss remarried on July 1,1993, to Frances May Duman.
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Desmond Doss was buried on April 3,2006, in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, Tennessee.
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Desmond Doss was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high.
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Private First Class Desmond 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.
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Desmond Doss 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.
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Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Private First Class Desmond 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.
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The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Private First Class Desmond 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.
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Desmond Doss's name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.
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On February 18,1959, Desmond Doss appeared on the Ralph Edwards NBC TV show This Is Your Life.
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Desmond Doss is the subject of The Conscientious Objector, a 2004 documentary by Terry Benedict.
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Desmond Doss was profiled in a three-part TV series by It Is Written in November 2016.