Desmond Doss was the subject of the film "Hacksaw Ridge," but the real story is even more remarkable than Hollywood portrayed. A Seventh-day Adventist from Lynchburg, Virginia, Doss believed deeply that killing was wrong — yet he felt equally compelled to serve his country as a combat medic.

His refusal to carry a weapon made him an outcast in his unit. Fellow soldiers threw shoes at him while he prayed, called him a coward, and his commanding officers tried multiple times to have him discharged on psychiatric grounds. One soldier promised to kill Doss in combat.

The Maeda Escarpment

On May 5, 1945, Doss's unit assaulted the Maeda Escarpment — a 400-foot cliff face on Okinawa that American troops called "Hacksaw Ridge." The Japanese had fortified it with tunnels, pillboxes, and hidden gun emplacements. When the Americans reached the top, they were met with devastating fire. The attack collapsed and soldiers retreated back down the cliff.

Doss stayed on top. Alone, under constant fire, he began dragging wounded men to the edge of the cliff and lowering them down on a rope litter he had fashioned. He kept praying the same prayer: "Lord, please let me get one more."

He saved 75 men that day. When the Army wanted to award him the Medal of Honor, other soldiers who had previously tormented him fought to increase the official count of those he saved.

The Wounds

Doss wasn't done. In subsequent fighting, he was wounded four times — hit by a grenade that filled his legs with shrapnel, and shot by a sniper through his arm. While being carried on a stretcher, he saw a more badly wounded soldier and rolled off, insisting the stretcher bearers take the other man. While waiting, he was hit again, shattering his arm. He splinted it himself with a rifle stock — still refusing to actually carry a weapon — and crawled 300 yards to an aid station.

He lost a kidney and most of the use of one arm. He received the Medal of Honor from President Truman, becoming the first conscientious objector to receive it in World War II.