During World War II, Desmond Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006) was a corporal in the US Army who worked as a combat medic for an infantry company. He declined to carry a weapon because of his religious convictions.
For his actions in the Philippines and Guam, he received the Bronze Star Medal twice. By acting independently and saving an estimated 75 men during the Battle of Okinawa, Desmond Doss further distinguished himself. He was the first of only three conscientious objectors to be awarded the Medal of Honor for this and other actions; the other two recipients were Joseph G. LaPointe Jr. and Thomas W. Bennett, who were posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor during the Vietnam War.
Books, the 2004 documentary The Conscientious Objector, and the 2016 Oscar-winning movie Hacksaw Ridge—in which Andrew Garfield played him—have all focused on his life.
Desmond Doss Biography
Desmond William Thomas Doss (1893–1989), a carpenter, and Bertha Edward Doss (née Oliver) (1899–1983), a housewife and shoe factory worker, were the parents of Thomas Doss, who was born in Lynchburg, Virginia. Between 1917 and 1918, William Doss signed up for the Selective Service System in Lynchburg, Virginia. As a devoted Seventh-day Adventist, his mother instilled in him the values of vegetarianism, nonviolence, and Sabbath observance. He grew up with his younger brother Harold and older sister Audrey in Lynchburg’s Fairview Heights neighborhood.
In order to provide for his family during the Great Depression, Desmond Doss worked at the Lynchburg Lumber Company after completing the eighth grade at the Park Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church. Doss worked as a joiner in a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia, prior to the start of World War II.
Desmond Doss refused to carry a weapon
Desmond Doss was conscripted into the Army on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia, after declining a draft deferment provided to him due to his work at the shipyard for patriotic reasons. He was assigned to train with the 77th Infantry Division, which had been reactivated, in Fort Jackson, South Carolina. Harold, his brother, was serving on the USS Lindsey at the time.
As a Seventh-day Adventist who personally opposes killing, Doss declined to bring a weapon into battle. So he joined the 2nd Platoon, Company B, 1st Battalion, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division as a medic.
For extraordinary bravery in helping wounded comrades under fire, he received two Bronze Star Medals with a “V” device in 1944 while serving with his platoon in Guam and the Philippines. He saved the lives of 50 to 100 wounded infantrymen on top of what the 96th Division called Hacksaw Ridge or the Maeda Escarpment during the Battle of Okinawa. After suffering four injuries in Okinawa, Desmond Doss was evacuated on the USS Mercy on May 21, 1945. While being transported back to Allied lines, Doss was shot by a sniper, breaking his left arm. He also attempted to kick a grenade away from himself and his fellow soldiers, which resulted in 17 pieces of shrapnel becoming embedded in his body. His actions in Okinawa earned him the Medal of Honor.
What happened to Desmond Doss after the War
Desmond Doss hoped to pursue a career in carpentry after the war, but severe injuries to his left arm prevented him from doing so. He was diagnosed with TB in 1946, which he had acquired in Leyte. After five and a half years of treatment, during which he lost five ribs and a lung, he was released from the hospital in August 1951 with 90% impairment.
He was assigned 100% disability in 1976 after an antibiotic overdose left him totally deaf; a cochlear implant helped him restore his hearing in 1988. He raised a family on a modest farm in Rising Fawn, Georgia, in spite of his injuries.
On August 17, 1942, Desmond Doss wed Dorothy Pauline Schutte, and the two had a son, Desmond “Tommy” Doss Jr., in 1946. Following in his father’s footsteps, Desmond Jr. worked as an army medic before becoming a paramedic and fireman. Dorothy passed away in an automobile accident on November 17, 1991, while Doss was transporting her to the hospital for cancer treatment. On July 1, 1993, Doss remarried Frances May Duman.
On March 23, 2006, Desmond Doss passed away at his Piedmont, Alabama, home after being admitted to the hospital due to breathing difficulties. On April 3, 2006, he was laid to rest in Tennessee’s Chattanooga National Cemetery. Three years later, on February 3, 2009, Frances passed away at Piedmont, Alabama’s Piedmont Health Care Center.
Honors and Recognition
- Near Peaks View Park, a section of US Route 501 is designated as the “Pfc. Desmond T. Doss Memorial Expressway.” Several times throughout the year, especially during patriotic holidays, local veterans pay tribute to him by adorning the signs that designate this section of the road.
- Grand Ledge, Michigan’s Camp Desmond T. Doss was established in 1951 to assist in preparing young Seventh-day Adventist men for military service. Before the land was sold in 1988, the camp operated during the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
- A Lynchburg school was renamed Desmond T. Doss Christian Academy at the beginning of the 1980s. The Lynchburg Seventh-day Adventist Church, where Desmond Doss attended during his time in Lynchburg, established the school. The church wished to recognize Doss for persevering in his faith in the face of extreme hardship. Before he passed away, Doss made three trips to the school that bears his name.
- On July 10, 1990, Walker County’s Georgia Highway 2 between US Highway 27 and Georgia Highway 193 was designated as the “Desmond T. Doss Medal of Honor Highway.”
- A special resolution recognizing Doss’s valiant achievements on behalf of the nation was delivered to him when he appeared before the Georgia House of Representatives on March 20, 2000.
- At the National Museum of Patriotism in Atlanta, Georgia, a statue of Doss was erected on July 4, 2004, and it remained there until July 2010, when the museum closed.
- At Collegedale, Tennessee’s Veterans Memorial Park, a statue of Doss was dedicated in May 2007.
- The Walter Reed Army Medical Center guest house in Washington, D.C., was renamed Doss Memorial Hall in July 2008.
- A two-mile section of Piedmont’s Alabama Highway 9 was designated the “Desmond T. Doss Sr. Memorial Highway” on August 30, 2008.
- Desmond T. Doss Christian Academy received a plaque in his honor from the city of Lynchburg, Virginia, on October 25, 2016.
- In honor of Doss’s lifetime dedication to vegetarianism, PETA presented him with a Hero to Animals award on February 7, 2017, posthumously.
- The Desmond T. Doss Health Clinic was renamed the U.S. Army Health Clinic-Schofield Barracks in Hawaii on May 7, 2019.
- The Lynchburg, Virginia, Area Veterans Council honored the Desmond T. Doss Veterans Home on October 12, 2020, by dedicating a plaque at the house where he grew up. The home is Doss’s birthplace and is now used as a homeless and displaced veterans shelter.
TV and Movies
Desmond Doss made an appearance on Ralph Edwards’ NBC television program This Is Your Life on February 18, 1959.
Terry Benedict’s 2004 documentary, The Conscientious Objector, focuses on Doss.
Andrew Garfield played him in the 2016 feature film Hacksaw Ridge, which was directed by Mel Gibson and produced by Terry Benedict. Garfield’s performance earned him an Academy Award nomination.
In November 2016, It Is Written produced a three-part television series featuring Doss.
Books
Four biographical books have been written on Desmond Doss:
- Herndon, Booton (2004). The Unlikeliest Hero: The Story of Desmond T. Doss, Conscientious Objector Who Won His Nation’s Highest Military Honor. Mountain View, CA: Pacific Press Publishing Association.
- Desmond Doss Conscientious Objector: The Story of an Unlikely Hero (2015) by Frances M. Doss.
- Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge: The Gripping True Story That Inspired The Movie (2016) by Booton Herndon.
- The Birth of Hacksaw Ridge: How It All Began (2017) by Gregory Crosby and Gene Church.
