Badass - Desmond Doss. Corporal Desmond Doss of the 7. Infantry Division is, as far as I can tell, one of the only people in American history to receive the Medal of Honor – the country's highest award for military bravery in the face of thousands of fanatical enemy combatants psychotically unloading a hellacious cloud of bullets in your direction with varying degrees of accuracy – not only without ever actually firing a shot in anger, but without ever even actually carrying a weapon into combat in his entire life. Nothing. He didn't need one to save the lives of at least 5. Conscientious Objector to ever earn the Medal. Desmond Doss was born in Lynchburg, Virginia in 1. Bible- thumping Seventh- Day Adventists. A firm believer in the Sixth Commandment (that's the one about not murdering other people), Doss had a marginally difficult time reconciling his desire to serve his country in World War the Second with his disinclination to shoot other human beings in the face at close range with a thirty- aught- six slug delivered from the piping- hot barrel of a bayonet- equipped M1 Garand. He registered for the draft on his 1. American man was supposed to do, and he took a decent civvie job working on Navy ships at the Newport News docks, but then just to be safe he went out and took a little bit of medical training as well so that in case his number actually got called he could be sure he wouldn't have to be packing heat when he was deployed into a hellacious overseas war zone. When Doss's number came up in 1. Conscientious Objection Fact Sheet. Home » Resources » Conscientious Objection. After you read this fact sheet, please call the Hotline (877-447-4487) to talk over. Just pushed the review from four to five stars. This book tells the story of (at the time of writing) the only conscientious objector to be awarded the. Army recruiting office, he didn't try to defer or punk out or cry or any stupid nonsense like that. He was, however, still unwilling to compromise his principles re: inflicting ridiculous amounts of violent brutal death on the enemy, so when he got there Doss requested . Since that's not a real thing, the Army stamped him . Soldiers threw their boots at him. One Sergeant tried to get him court- martialed for disobeying a direct order to carry a rifle. Another officer tried to transfer him out of the unit, then, when that failed, attempted to have him discharged as a mental case. Doss sat there, took the abuse, completed his Medic training, and then when the bullets started flying he showed them all that he had the biggest, brassiest balls in the entire Division. Because sure, anyone can stare at the enemy down the iron sights of a trusty rifle, but only a truly fearless badass would sprint towards them with a bulls- eye painted on his helmet and armed with nothing more than a box of Band- Aids and tube of Neosporin. Doss's first chance to prove himself came during the American assault on the Japanese- controlled island of Guam in 1. With his Medic insignia prominently displayed on his helmet and sleeve – an emblem that made him a big, meaty target for Japanese snipers eager to crush the American morale by capping their doctors – Doss accompanied hundreds of missions through the dense jungles of the small Pacific island over the course of several months of intense combat, routinely going out with search- and- destroy patrols even when he hadn't actually even been assigned as the Medic for the unit. For his repeated bravery dragging wounded and dying men out of ultra- deadly killzones and giving them life- saving first aid, Doss earned his first of two Bronze Stars. After a brief stopover in New Caldeonia, Doss was next shipped out to the Philippine island of Leyte in December '4. One again, he showed everyone that you don't need to make fools' heads explode to be badass, earning his second Bronze Star for an action where he ran a hundred or so yards through wide- open brush to save two critically- wounded soldiers who had been caught in a deadly crossfire from two hardened Japanese machine gun positions. Doss somehow made it to the men in one piece, realized one was dead, and then single- handedly carried the other man back through ankle- deep mud to the safety of the jungle, where he built a stretcher out of bamboo and dragged the wounded soldier to safety while Japanese snipers used his skull for target practice. Bernie Sanders was a pacifist during the Vietnam War and applied for conscientious objector status at the time, his campaign told ABC News. Only Official Desmond Doss Website. Conscientious objector definition, refusal on moral or religious grounds to bear arms in a military conflict or to serve in the armed forces. What made you want to look up conscientious objector? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible). And, honestly, that was like a typical Wednesday for a combat medic in Leyte. The non- com warned me not to,but I told him, it may not be my duty but it was what I believed in. I knew these men; they were my buddies, some had wives and children. If they were hurt, I wanted to be there to take care of them. And when someone got hit, the others would close in around me while I treated him, then we'd all go out together. Desmond Doss would perform the ridiculously- over- the- top act of desperate death- despising balls- outitude he would come to be remembered for in the annals of American military history. His unit, B Company of the 1st Battalion, 3. Infantry Regiment, 7. Infantry Division, had been ordered to take part in the massive operation to capture the Maeda Escarpment – a 4. Japanese people. Every step of the battle was hell, as the Japanese contested every square centimeter of the hill with their lives. Doss and B Company climbed ropes up sheer cliff faces, advanced through dangerously- wide- open minefields, and cleared out enemy positions with flamethrowers and satchel charges as the tenacious defenders hammered them with machine guns and mortars relentlessly day and night without mercy, vowing to die where they stood rather than concede a single handful of dirt to the American assault. It was during this fight, on the night of April 3. Desmond Doss performed one of many feats of heroic bravery when a 5- man squad of B Company soldiers charged up a 4. Japanese machine gun team: Doss, never one to leave a wounded man behind, got on his belly and army- crawled to his injured comrades – who, by the way, were less than 1. Just four days after this mind- blowing act of selfless heroism, Doss and 1st Battalion were on the move again, continuing their inexorable advance up the Maeda Escarpment. This time, however, the Japanese had a trap waiting for them – the moment the Americans moved into a dangerously- exposed position, two camouflaged trenches filled with Japanese troops threw off their camo netting and opened up with a deadly enfilading fire that raked the American patrol from two directions at once. Battalion were killed or wounded in action, the rest broke and withdrew in panic, and when the smoke cleared only one American was left standing on the blood- soaked battlefield. Desmond Doss. I had a Japanese aid kit, two American aid kits, and my pockets were stuffed with bandages. I couldn't just abandon my men. They knew if there was any way possible I could take care of them, I would. As rifle fire whizzed over his head from both directions, Doss crawled through the crossfire, sometimes to within 3. Japanese front lines, grabbing the wounded Americans and pulling them back in a Herculean display of hardcore badassitude. The official record states that over the course of five hours of constant work, Doss pulled 7. Doss, always humble, thinks the number is more like 5. The Army Medal of Honor citation initially read 1. I'd argue it doesn't really matter that much – it's not the number that counts, it's the fact that this guy ran through a brutal war- torn hellhole, completely unarmed, and dragged badly injured men to safety until he was physically unable to move his legs any more. Two weeks after single- handedly saving 7. Desmond Doss was back in action again, this time at a position a couple miles past the Escarpment. Unfortunately, that battle wouldn't end up as well for him – a planned American sneak attack went haywire when U. S. When a Japanese grenade landed in the hole with him, Doss tried to kick it away, but the explosive blew and peppered his legs and back with 1. Doss treated himself for shock, took care of his wounds, then turned down the opportunity to be evacuated by stretcher because he believed there were other wounded men who needed it more. Instead, he went right back to doing what he did best – helping the wounded – running back into the fight and dragging men to safety until a sniper round shattered all three bones in his left arm. Badly wounded, bleeding, and without a usable arm or leg, Doss still managed to walk back to the aid station under his own power. His biggest regret? The Bible his wife gave him had fallen out of his pocket when he was blown off his feet by the grenade, and he hadn't recovered it before saving a bunch of lives and walking away from life- threatening injuries. It worked out pretty well, though. When his commanding officer came by the hospital to visit Doss and inform him that he was going to receive the Medal of Honor, he brought a present – a waterlogged, semi- charred pocket Bible. Apparently after the hill had been captured from the Japanese, every man in the Company scoured the field until they'd found it for him. Links: NY Times Obit. Washington Post. Bruce's History Lessons. Wikipedia. Sources: Collier, Peter and Nick Del Calzo. Artisan, 2. 01. 1. Willbanks, James H. ABC- CLIO, 2. 01. Smith, Larry and Norman Schwarzkopf.
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