Hacksaw Ridge

Sabbath, May 5, 1945, was a challenging day in Okinawa. Japanese troops were fiercely defending their last remaining barrier —Okinawa and the Maeda Escarpment, a huge cliff that the soldiers called Hacksaw Ridge.

When American soldiers reached the top of the cliff, the enemy met them with a vicious counterattack. American officers ordered an immediate retreat. All of the soldiers obeyed except one —Desmond Doss— who, risking his own life, went back into the firefight to rescue as many wounded soldiers as he could.

He saved at least seventy-five lives that day.

Several days later, Doss himself was severely wounded by a Japanese grenade that landed at his feet and by a sniper’s bullet that shattered his arm.

In pain and losing blood, he sent other wounded soldiers out of the fray ahead of himself. He was willing to die so others could live.

Doss paid a lifelong price for his heroic actions.

For five and a half years, he underwent treatment for tuberculosis he contracted during the war. Eventually, a lung and five ribs had to be removed.

Nevertheless, he was at peace in his conscience.

As an unarmed Seventh-day Adventist combat medic, Doss did not fire or even carry a gun. Rather than killing, he chose to heal, even during Sabbath hours (Matthew 12:12). On October 12, 1945, Doss received the Medal of Honor from United States president Harry S. Truman. In fact, Doss was the first conscientious objector to receive that honor, which was followed by several other accolades. His story is told in the books The Unlikeliest Hero (republished in 2016 as Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge), by Booton Herndon, and Desmond Doss: Conscientious Objector, by Frances M. Doss.

This amazing story was brought to the big screen in the famous film Hacksaw Ridge. True war heroes are not always those who kill many enemy soldiers. They may also be people who rescue lives, as Desmond Doss did.

He was a war hero because he followed and practiced the example of Christ, who “went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (Acts 10:38). The world needs more heroes like that!