Desmond Doss

March 26, 2006 9:07 PM

Desmond Doss dies at 87.Desmond Doss, first conscientious objector to win a Medal of Honor, was a Seventh Day Adventist who refused to carry a gun, eat meat, or work on Saturday. Under heavy Japanese fire, he lowered 75 wounded men to safety from the top of the Maeda Escarpment on Okinawa. That was only one of his acts of heroism.
posted by forrest (17 comments total)

This was not a one-shot deal. Two weeks later, Doss was seriously wounded by a grenade. Instead of calling for aid, Doss dressed his own wounds and waited 5 hours for litter bearers. As he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically wounded soldier and crawled off the litter. As he waited for the litter bearers to return, a bullet broke his arm. He splinted it with a rifle stock and crawled 300 yards to the aid station.
posted by forrest at 9:08 PM on March 26, 2006

Nice post thanks, I never heard of this guy. I like this from the Medal of Honor page:

The Army determined that this medic, whom no one had wanted in the Army, had personally saved 100 lives. Doss humbly said it couldnt have been more than 50. Because of Doss humble estimate, when the citation for his Medal of Honor was written, they split the difference and he was credited with saving the lives of 75 of his fellow soldiers.
posted by marxchivist at 9:18 PM on March 26, 2006

Incredible. I'd never heard of him and now he's one of my heroes.
posted by vacapinta at 9:18 PM on March 26, 2006

Wow, the Rambo of pacifists- a one man army of Ghandis! Good link.
posted by Operation Afterglow at 9:48 PM on March 26, 2006

There is a difference between a man who says, "I won't go to war," and a man who says, "I won't fight." Desmond Doss enlisted; he wasn't drafted.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 9:53 PM on March 26, 2006

I read about this gentelman recently after the local SDA church was screening a documentary about him. They had contacted me for publicity, and I had no idea who he was, so I googled him, and was amazed.

I really admire his determination.
posted by bugmuncher at 10:08 PM on March 26, 2006

Now that is a bad-ass.
posted by tkolar at 10:36 PM on March 26, 2006

Wow. Talk about having the courage of your convictions. Thanks for the post. I feel duly humbled.
posted by RokkitNite at 10:48 PM on March 26, 2006

With the constant religious references and all, medalofhonor.com looks like some church-recruitment outlet.

I'd want nothing to do with this person, rather die manfully in battle.
posted by Laotic at 1:09 AM on March 27, 2006

Fascinating. I'd never heard of conscientious objectors actually being deployed into warzones, only into jails. Although I would have to say, it's not like he was a conscientious objector to the war (as those in the Vietnam era were, lousy hippies), simply he wanted to help without fighting, which he seems to have done quite admirably.
posted by antifuse at 3:41 AM on March 27, 2006

Forrest thank you very very much for finding this story and letting us know, it's extremely interesting !

I'm taking for granted that all that is reported about him is correct, as I don't have means to investigate further. Yet the idea of a person that refuses to kill, yet exposes himself to killers to save other killers is fascinating.

Why should a person that rejects killing help killers survive ? I guess he practiced what he believed and that is a powerful example that need little worded preaching ; probably in his vision he was following this christian God example : Cain kills Abel and God condemns Cain, BUT God doesn't kill Cain in a revenge. On the contrary god warns that nobody should harm Cain, thus offering an example of the benefit of avoiding escalation of conflict.

He probably tought that it was more practical to cure the harmed then simply preaching to sky-gods and others not to touch Cain, even if most of the people he helped were probably brothers of Cain, killers themselves even if not stricly volountary ones. Yet he is a striking example of how one person can serve a country without directly harming others nor imposing others his beliefs.


ON preview :
it's not like he was a conscientious objector to the war (as those in the Vietnam era were, lousy hippies)

He most probably was objecting the war as well and didn't want to go to war, but he choosed to enlist so that he could train and enter force as doctor and not as a killer Marine. If every soldier decided to follow his example there wouldn't be any more wars, nor any more soldiers and that's why people like that are the scourge of warmongers of any size,race, sex, shape and political affiliation.

I also protest your considering all objector of Vietnam war as "lousy hippies" ; some of them were lousy, some hippies , some both but it has NOTHING to do with the fact they objected and refused to aide in any way the way, even indirectly. What about the Bush, Cheney et al that don't fall into the hippy stereotype yet were DODGERS ? I guess you could call that 19 year old Bush nephew a "lousy republican" given the number of republican chickenhawks.

With the constant religious references and all, medalofhonor.com looks like some church-recruitment outlet.

That's what I fear the most, his image being used to convey more jingoism and support to Churches and self-proclaimed-born-again-motherfuckers that don't have half the determination and piety of that man.

I'd want nothing to do with this person, rather die manfully in battle.

Then go to Iraq there's plenty space for violent "manfully" death nowadays.
posted by elpapacito at 6:27 AM on March 27, 2006

.
posted by AuntLisa at 8:58 AM on March 27, 2006

Laotic writes...
I'd want nothing to do with this person, rather die manfully in battle.

No doubt about it, dying is much easier than living with the courage of your convictions.
posted by tkolar at 9:47 AM on March 27, 2006

Then go to Iraq there's plenty space for violent "manful" death nowadays.

Can't oblige, my country is not at war with it.

dying is much easier than living with the courage of your convictions.

If you put conviction and dying in one sentence like that I start seeing images of blown up markets and buses.
posted by Laotic at 11:29 AM on March 27, 2006

Can't oblige, my country is not at war with it.
Excuses, nobody is preventing you to go fight over there
posted by elpapacito at 11:35 AM on March 27, 2006

I'd want nothing to do with this person, rather die manfully in battle.

Sounds like you've got your own strong convictions. Good for you.
posted by vacapinta at 1:51 PM on March 27, 2006

dying is much easier than living with the courage of your convictions.

If you put conviction and dying in one sentence like that I start seeing images of blown up markets and buses.

Me too. It may be 'manful' to die for a cause, but I reserve my admiration for the people who live for what they believe in.

Doss's belief in the bible is happenstance: many a devoted Christian ducked their responsibilities in WWII, or fought poorly and paid with their lives and those of their squadmates.

Doss set out to be an army medic, and continued to perform his tasks highly successfully under some of the hardest conditions imaginable. For me that engenders nothing but respect.
posted by tkolar at 2:03 PM on March 27, 2006