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. 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, acting on his own, becoming the first of only three conscientious objectors to receive the Medal of Honor for this and other actions. 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. His father served in the Army during World War I, he was awarded the Silver Star, and he later suffered from PTSD. His mother raised him as a devout Seventh-day Adventist and instilled Sabbath-keeping, nonviolence, and vegetarianism in his upbringing. He grew up in the Fairview Heights area of Lynchburg, alongside his older sister Audrey and younger brother Harold. 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. Before the outbreak of World War II, Doss was employed as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia.

World War II

Doss chose military service, despite being offered a deferment because of his shipyard work, on April 1, 1942, at Camp Lee, Virginia. 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. Doss refused to carry a weapon into combat because of his personal beliefs as a Seventh-day Adventist against killing. 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, 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. Doss was wounded four times in Okinawa, and was evacuated on May 21, 1945, aboard the USS Mercy (AH-8). Doss suffered a left arm fracture from a sniper's bullet while being carried back to Allied lines and at one point had seventeen pieces of shrapnel embedded in his body after attempting to kick a grenade away from himself and his comrades. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions in Okinawa.

Post-war life

After the war, Doss wanted to continue his career in carpentry but extensive damage to his left arm made that impossible. In 1946, he was diagnosed with tuberculosis, contracted on Leyte. 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. 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. Despite his injuries, he managed to raise a family on a small farm in Rising Fawn, Georgia. 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. On November 17, 1991, Dorothy died in a car accident that happened while Doss was driving her to the hospital for cancer treatment. Doss remarried on July 1, 1993, to Frances May Duman. After being hospitalized for difficulty breathing, Doss died on March 23, 2006, at his home in Piedmont, Alabama. He was buried on April 3, 2006, in the Chattanooga National Cemetery, Tennessee. Frances died three years later on February 3, 2009, at the Piedmont Health Care Center in Piedmont, Alabama.

Awards and decorations

Medal of Honor

Other awards and decorations

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. 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. Garfield was nominated for an Academy Award for his performance. Doss was profiled in a three-part TV series by It Is Written in November 2016.

Print

Doss is the subject of four biographical books: