This story is so absolutely remarkable it may be hard to believe, but numerous eyewitnesses have confirmed that it is true!
Born in Lynchburg, Virginia to a devoted Seventh Day Adventist family, Desmond Doss asked the local draft board for non-combat duty, so they arranged for him to become a US Army medic in the 307th Infantry Division.
Near the Okinawa, Uraesoe Mura, Ryukyu Islands from April 29 to May 21 PFC. Doss was a company medic when the 1 st 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 about 75 casualties and drove the others back.
PFC Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire swept area with the wounded, carrying them one-by-one back to the edge of the escarpment, securing them with a rope, and lowered them down the cliff face to friendly hands below.
PFC Doss returned to the battleground 75 times in the face of devastating fire, rescuing the wound one-by-one, carrying them back through the hail of bullets and explosions.
On May 2nd PFC Doss exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment. Two days later he treated four men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in at the cave’s mouth. He dressed the wounds while under fire, and carried each of the four out returning each time until all four were safely evacuated.
On May 5th he unhesitatingly braved the enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that provided protection from the small arms fire, and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma to the wounded soldier. 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 st 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 injure red until he himself was 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 carried 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: directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man.
While waiting for the litter bearers return PFC Doss was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of his arm.
With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station.
Through PFC Doss outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions, he saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.