Desmond Thomas Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia back in 1919 to William and Bertha. He enlisted in the military back in 1942 however, he was a conscientious objector and refused to kill an enemy or carry a weapon. He became a medic serving in the Pacific theatre of World War II.
He was wounded three times during the war, shortly before being discharged he was diagnosed with tuberculosis that cost him a lung. He died in Piedmont, Alabama in 2006 at 87 and is buried in Chattanooga, Tennessee’s National Cemetery.
So you may be asking yourself why I chose to write about Desmond today. Well I’m glad you had that thought so now I can tell you the rest of the story. You see he also held to his beliefs while serving this nation. His company assaulted a jagged escarpment taking a heavy-concentration of artillery, mortar and machine gun fire. He refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area carrying 75 causalities one-by-one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering wounded man 200 yards to safety. Two days later advancing through a shower of grenades he was able to get within eight yards of enemy forces in a cave’s mouth where he treated his comrades’ wounds making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On that same day he crawled to another artillery officer where he also attended to his wounds and then carried him 100 yards to safety. During the engagement he was wounded and while he was being carried to safety they came under attack from an enemy tank. Seeing more wounded men nearby he crawled to them where he attended to their wounds. For this act and many more he was the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor. Now you know the rest of the story.
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