05/25/2026
Desmond Doss – The Unarmed Hero of Hacksaw Ridge (Western Pacific, 1945)
Some warriors hold the line by refusing to let war strip them of conscience. Desmond Doss did
this literally. A Seventh-day Adventist Army medic during World War II, Doss refused to carry a weapon on religious grounds, a conviction that earned him ridicule, harassment, and formal attempts to discharge him as unfit for service. He endured it all without bitterness and without yielding.
At the Battle of Okinawa in May 1945, during the assault on the sheer cliff face, Americans
called Hacksaw Ridge, Doss and his unit was shattered by a Japanese counterattack. Soldiers retreated over the edge, but Doss stayed. Alone, under fire, he moved through the carnage for hours, lowering wounded men one by one down the cliff face on a rope, praying between each one, “Lord, let me get one more.” He saved 75 lives without firing a shot. President Truman awarded
him the Medal of Honor and told Doss that he considered it a greater honor than being
President.
I find Doss remarkable precisely because his example cuts across every boundary. You do not need to have worn a uniform to understand what he did. He held the line between life and death for young Americans who would otherwise have been left behind – armed with nothing but faith and will.
On Memorial Day, we remember those who died. But we must also remember why they fought, and Doss shows us what that it looks like when stripped of everything but its purest form. - Eric F. Buer
