Hacksaw Ridge: Is the Medal of Honor a Fucking Joke?

in #academia8 years ago (edited)

Went to war with no guns or any weapon to protect himself.
He refused to kill anyone and still got himself a Medal of Honor.

Is the Medal of Honor a fucking joke?

Mr. Doss was guided all his life by a framed poster his father bought at an auction which depicted Cain holding a club with the slain Abel beneath him with scriptures from the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer.

He was once recommended for discharge on the ground of mental illness for his devotion to prayer and his refusal to handle weapons or work on the Sabbath during his training at stateside posts.

He served as a combat medic on Guam and at Leyte in the Philippines with the 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division in the summer of 1944 where he received his Bronze Star, before his stint in the battle for Okinawa in 1945.

Desmond Thomas Doss (February 7, 1919 – March 23, 2006) was named the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor after serving with the Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division.

He literally walked into MG and artillery fire to carry over 75 wounded men to safety one by one.

When he got wounded, he treated his own wounds so he wouldn't have to risk another medic's life.

When he finally got put on a stretcher, he rolled off of it to have a more wounded man take his place

Desmond T. Doss, died on March 23, 2006 at his home in Piedmont, Ala. He was 87.

His Citation of Awards

He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying all 75 casualties one-by-one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. On May 2, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. On May 5, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small arms fire and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire. On May 21, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter; and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, by a sniper bullet while being carried off the field by a comrade, this time suffering a compound fracture of one arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.

Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/25/us/desmond-t-doss-87-heroic-war-objector-dies.html?_r=0

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desmond_Doss

http://www.homeofheroes.com/profiles/profiles_doss2.html

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