Pfc. Desmond Doss, the Rest of the Story, Part Two©

 

 

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Last week we talked about part Pfc Desmond Doss’s story that was not in the movie Hacksaw Ridge, and now for the rest of the story.

 

Unlike the movie, the story of Pfc. Desmond Doss’s heroism doesn’t end with him lowering more than seventy five wounded soldiers to the bottom of a cliff.  Earlier that same day, he crawled 200 yards (183 meters) into Japanese controlled territory to rescue a wounded man.  A few days later, on May 4, he saw four men wounded while trying to knock out an enemy cave stronghold.  Despite intense Japanese fire, he advanced four times to within 8 yards (7 meters) of the cave entrance to treat their wounds and carry them to the safety of the American lines.  The next day, May 5^th he bandaged a wounded officer under heavy Japanese small arm and artillery fire and moved him to a covered spot before administering plasma.  Later the same day, Doss saw a man wounded 25 yards in front of cave, which the engineers were preparing to demolish.  He moved to him, tended his wounds, and then carried him under continuous Japanese fire over 100 yards of rough terrain to the safety of an aid station.

 

During a bold night attack on May 21^st, Company B was forced to take cover from incoming Japanese fire, however there were wounded that couldn’t take cover and Doss courageously moved from one to another administering first aid.  He and two other soldiers crawled into a hole to wait out the darkness, when suddenly a Japanese grenade landed among them.  The other soldiers were able to scramble out in time, but as Doss attempted to kick a grenade away from himself and the others it detonated beneath his leg.  He was badly wounded and bleeding from more than seventeen wounds in his left leg.  Refusing to call for another medic, who would have had to risk his life leaving cover, Doss bandaged his own wounds and later, at daybreak, when the pain became too intense, he gave himself an injection of morphine. 

 

He waited for five hours until dawn when fellow soldier T/5 Ralph E. Baker, and a few other men, carried him on a litter to the aid station.  After they had carried him approximately 50 yards (45 meters), they were forced to take cover from three Japanese tanks.  Seeing another severely wounded soldier who had a head wound, Doss told them to take the other soldier to safety.  

 

While waiting for the return of the litter party, Lewis Brooks, who was “walking wounded”, came along the trail.  He offered to help Desmond and the two started down the path.  Brooks’s had his arm around Desmond’s waist, supporting him, and Doss had his left arm draped over his shoulder when Desmond was wounded again, this time by sniper fire.  The sniper’s bullet punched through his left forearm and lodged in his upper arm, leaving him with a compound fractures both above and below his elbow.  He instructed Brooks’s on how to treat and splint the fractures of his arm using a discarded rifle stock.  Then he and Brroks crawled more than 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.  On the hospital ship , seventeen pieces of shrapnel were removed from Doss’s leg and his arm set in a cast.  

 

His actions on the Maeda Escarpment earned him the highest honor America can bestow on one of her sons or daughters, the Congressional Medal of Honor.  On October 12, 1945, President Harry S. Truman presented, now, Corporal Doss with the Medal of Honor in a ceremony on the White House lawn.  President Truman shook Doss’s hand and told him, “I’m proud of you.  You really deserve this.  I consider this a greater honor than being president”.  US Army medic Desmond Doss became the first, and only, conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor during World War II.  Doss said of the honor, “I feel that I received the Congressional Medal of Honor because I kept the Golden Rule that we read in Matthew 7:12. ...All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them...”

 

Desmond Doss's war was over.  He'd fought a good fight, a just fight and he had fought it his own way without ever compromising his beliefs.  Later he said, “I felt like it was an honor to serve God and country, we were fightin' for our religious liberty and freedom”.

 

And “Now you know the rest of the story”.

 

 

I hope that you enjoy learning from this resource!  To help me to continue to provide valuable free content, please consider showing your appreciation by leaving a donation HERE.  Thank you and Happy Trails!

 

I hope that you continue to enjoy The Woodsman’s Journal Online and look for me on YouTube at BandanaMan Productions for other related videos, HERE.  Don’t forget to follow me on both The Woodsman’s Journal Online, HERE, and subscribe to BandanaMan Productions on YouTube.  If you have questions, as always, feel free to leave a comment on either site.  I announce new articles on Facebook at Eric Reynolds, on Instagram at bandanamanaproductions, and on VK at Eric Reynolds, so watch for me.

 

That is all for now, and as always, until next time, Happy Trails!

 

 

Sources

 

Benedict, Terry L.; The Conscientious Objector, Cinequest

 

Desmonddoss.com; “Desmond Doss: The Real Story”, https://desmonddoss.com/bio/bio-real.php, accessed May 17, 2025

 

Herndon, Booton; Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge, [Remnant Publications, Coldwater, MI, 2016]

 

Home of Heroes; “Desmond T. Doss”, [© 2018 by Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC], https://homeofheroes.com/heroes-stories/world-war-ii/desmond-t-doss/#:~:text=After%20soundly%20defeating%20the%20Japanese,released%20by%20Lionsgate%20in%202016, accessed May 17, 2025

 

National WW2 Museum; “Private First Class Desmond Thomas Doss Medal of Honor”, October 12, 2020, https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/private-first-class-desmond-thomas-doss-medal-of-honor, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Prefer, Nathan N.; “Hell on Hacksaw Ridge”, August 2021, https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/article/hell-on-hacksaw-ridge/#:~:text=Doss%2C%20the%20only%20surviving%20aid%20man%20in,to%20GIs%20below%2C%20saving%2075%20wounded%20Americans, accessed May 10, 2025

 

United States Civil Defense; Rescue Skills and Techniques TM-14-1, [Federal Civil Defense Administration, United States Government Printing Office, October 1957], page 21-22, https://books.google.com/books?id=JezBftEUj7EC&pg=PP3&dq=%22Rescue+Techniques+and+Operations+TM-14-1+%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjGkYeR45KNAxUjK1kFHQ1wIf0Q6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22Rescue%20Techniques%20and%20Operations%20TM-14-1%20%22&f=false, accessed May 10, 2025

 

United State Civil Defense Office; Technical Manual: TM., Issue 14, [Federal Civil Defense Administration, United States Government Printing Office, September 1952], page 21, https://books.google.com/books?id=LvvDCx5EwOkC&pg=PA20&dq=%22civil+defense%22+%22life+basket%22&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiVmsvW4JKNAxX0EFkFHZedL0cQ6AF6BAgJEAM#v=onepage&q=%22civil%20defense%22%20%22life%20basket%22&f=false, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Unknown, “Desmond Doss: The Real Story”, https://desmonddoss.com/bio/bio-real.php, accessed May 17, 2025

 

U.S, Army; “Private First Class Desmond T. Doss Interview, March 20, 1987”, https://web.archive.org/web/20161108195456/http://ameddregiment.amedd.army.mil/moh/bios/dossInt.html, accessed May 17, 2025

 

van Dujin, Tina, et. al; Can analogy instructions help older people (re)learn activities of daily living?, July 2024, https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Description-of-the-bowline-knot-by-the-rabbit-analogy-Source_fig1_382735870, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Citation for PFC Desmond Doss (1944 - 1945) 10325_2006_001”, January 6, 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citatie_Desmond_Doss.jpg, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Citation for PFC Desmond Doss(1944 - 1945) 10325_2006_002”, January 6, 2006, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Citatie_2_Desmond_Doss.jpg, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Desmond Doss, on top of the Maeda Escarpment, Battle of Okinawa”, May 4, 1945, by United States Army, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Doss_Maeda.jpg, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “The grave of Desmond Doss in the Chattanooga National Cemetery”, April 24, 2011, by Fred Bullmer, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmond_Doss_Grave.jpg, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia; “Doss wearing an HBT jacket with a medic’s kit bag around his neck on Okinawa”, 1945, by United States Army, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Desmond_Doss_in_Okinawa.jpg, accessed May 10, 2025

 

Wikimedia, “Americans_on_Okinawa_hear_of_victory_in_Europe”, 1945 by United States Army, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Americans_on_Okinawa_hear_of_victory_in_Europe.jpg, accessed May 17, 2025

 

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