Treasured photo of the hero of ‘Hacksaw Ridge’

An early Christmas gift I received from my friend Ken Doss last week is one that will be treasured.

It’s a photo taken about 30 years ago of Ken standing with his cousin Desmond in front of a small crowd in a meeting hall or auditorium, most likely near Desmond’s home in Piedmont, Alabama. Ken is wearing a kind of rope harness, which was part of Desmond’s visual demonstration that evening.

Desmond Doss, who died in 2006 at the age of 87, is a World War II hero whose unbelievable story inspired the Mel Gibson-directed movie “Hacksaw Ridge.” Named for a key cliff on the island of Okinawa, Hacksaw Ridge became the bloodiest battle of the Pacific and the second most bloody battle of World War II.

The life story of Desmond Doss is certainly movie-worthy. As an unarmed Army medic, he became the first conscientious objector to receive the Medal of Honor.

After growing up in Lynchburg, Virginia, in a family of devout Seventh-day Adventists, Desmond was working in a shipyard in Newport News when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

After being drafted in 1942, he trained at stateside posts. He was given conscientious objector status because of his religious principles, which included not bearing arms. His slight stature and shyness, along with a devotion to prayer and his refusal to handle weapons or work on the Sabbath, brought harassment from fellow soldiers. At one point, an officer sought to have him discharged on the ground of mental illness.

Despite his pacifism, Doss felt a moral obligation to fight for his country. Becoming a medic was the one way he could serve his nation and also adhere to the Sixth Commandment (thou shalt not kill) as well as the Fourth Commandment, to honor the Sabbath.

In April 1945, the mission to take Hacksaw Ridge, a key to winning the battle, seemed nearly impossible. The 400-foot cliff was fortified with a network of Japanese machine gun nests and booby traps. When Doss’ battalion was ordered to retreat, there were a number of wounded soldiers stranded atop it, and Desmond refused to leave his fallen comrades behind.

Facing deadly fire, Desmond repeatedly ran alone into the kill zone, carrying wounded soldiers to the edge of the cliff and single-handedly lowering each man on a rope-supported litter he had devised. He used a double bowline knot he had learned as a youngster and tied the makeshift litter to a tree stump serving as an anchor.

This rope-tying demonstration was the subject of the personal photo which his cousin Ken gave me last week.

Although wounded himself, Desmond had another wounded man take his place on a stretcher. He continued to treat other soldiers until his arm was broken by Japanese fire. Amazingly, Mel Gibson omitted this scene from the movie because he felt that the audience would not find it believable.

By the end of the night Desmond had rescued an estimated 75 men.

He spent the first five years after the war recovering from his injuries. Unable to work full-time, he devoted the rest of his life working with his Seventh-day Adventist Church.

In one interview, Desmond said that the scars from war last forever, even for family members who send a soldier off and then see him or her coming back in a wheelchair.

“It’s just never over,” he said.

The week before Ken Doss gave me the photo with him and Desmond, another friend of mine sent an image about the Army-Navy football game that was about to be played in Philadelphia.

The photo showed linemen from the two teams in their stances facing each other just before the snap of the ball.

A caption for that photo stated that the Army-Navy game is the only football game where the men playing the game are willing to die for the those watching the game.

Desmond Doss never played football at the academies, where our finest military leaders are produced, but the Army medic certainly exhibited a special valor in wartime, and showed us the meaning of the word sacrifice while doing it.

By Jim Zbick | tneditor@tnonline.com