Desmond Doss: The Person I Admire

A person I admire is Desmond Doss. Doss was born on the 7th of February 1919 in Virginia, USA. He was an army medic in World War Two that fought in the battle of Guam, Battle of Leyte and the Battle of Okinawa. I admire Doss on his beliefs as a conscientious objector and that he believed that the killing of other humans contradicted his religion. He was a member of the seventh day Adventist church. The seven day Adventist’s follow the 28 fundamental beliefs which go over the the teachings of the holy scriptures that are categorised as God, man, salvation, Christian lifestyle, end day events and church. A seventh day Adventist’s Sabbath is on a Saturday and believe that it “protects man’s friendship with god and provides time essential for the development of that relationship”. Doss was helped and guided his whole younger life by a poster of the Ten Commandments that his father bought at an auction and would take those beliefs into a war where killing was expected and those who didn’t sign up for it or didn’t want to fight were viewed as weak. When Doss looked at that poster he would always go to the sixth commandment “Thou shalt not kill”, his strong belief of these commandments would help push him through cruel and brutal battles and I admire that he would go through a war with no means of protecting himself and still have the bravery to save others

Doss was drafted in April of 1942 at the age of 23 when he finished working his job at a shipyard. When he joined Doss was given conscientious objector status and didn’t use weapons because of his religion. During his training he was abused and harassed due to his not wanting to bear arms and his prayer devotion. A quote Doss told after the war was that one of the men in his barracks said “Doss, as soon as we get into combat, I’ll make sure you don’t come back alive”. Even though he was hated and disrespected by the men he was supposed to trust with his life he still wanted to take part in a war with no weapon and save the lives of his other soldiers that ridiculed him. Doss believed in the rule “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you” (Mathew 7:12). I admire Doss for all the suffering he went through at training and his ability to still deeply care for those who caused him this suffering. His superiors would often make him do all the hard jobs and try to intimidate him, scold him and try and make him leave the army as they thought of him as a liability. They would eventually try to get him court marshalled for refusing a direct order that was to carry a gun. But they failed to kick him out and Doss wouldn’t leave. He loved his country and thought of it as his duty to serve it but would have to put God before it and obey his commandments. One of the things I admire most about Doss is his commitment to God and his country.

The battle of Okinawa was one of the bloodiest, brutal and cruel battles in World War Two and Desmond Doss still managed to not only survive but save as many as 75 lives in a matter of hours. I admire him to be able to save that many people in that amount of time with no weapon. How Doss came to do such a heroic act was that when the Germans were surrendering the Japanese were still fighting with all they had with extreme ferocity and determination. The Japanese defended their last barrier (meada escarpment) that if broken would lead to them being invaded. Doss’s division kept trying to capture to maeda escarpment and we’re faced with an intimidating cliff they called hacksaw ridge. When they secured the top of the cliff they were attacked by Japanese soldiers and the Americans called to retreat and there soldiers rushed to get back down the cliff. A little less than one third of the division made it back down while the rest were dead and injured at the top of the cliff. What was left of Doss’s division were being finished of by the Japanese as he tirelessly aided and dragged down to the cliff edge and roped them down for hours and was only going to stop once he collapsed or died. I admire his extreme resilience to save people’s lives and return them down to safety without worrying about himself dying or being injured and his unending kindness.

Doss went on to be awarded many medals including the medal of honour for his heroic actions and was chosen to represent them at the White House ceremony. Before Doss was discharged from the army in 1946 he developed tuberculosis and had to have his left lung removed as well as five ribs. He went on to live with one lung until it failed and he died on the 23rd of March, 2006 at the age of 87. I chose to write about Desmond Doss because of the many things I admire about him but as well as his commitment to god and his country is that he lived a very hard life but still managed to be be a kind accepting person.