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April 04, 2006

Wow.

The only conscientious objector to receive a Medal of Honor in World War II has been buried at a national cemetery with a 21-gun salute, although he refused to carry a weapon while serving as an Army medic.

...While under enemy fire on the island of Okinawa, Doss carried 75 wounded soldiers to the edge of a 400-foot cliff and lowered them to safety, according to his citation.

During a later attack, he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. According to the citation, as he was being carried to safety, he saw a more critically injured man and crawled off his stretcher, directing the medics to help the other wounded man.


I'd never heard his story.
...By now, his fellow soldiers were used to his reading the Bible and praying, so it didnt seem unusual when, on that April 29th morning in 1945, he suggested that they might want to pray. They were facing a sheer 400-foot cliff that split the island of Okinawa known as the Maeda Escarpment. It would be necessary to attack and capture this area. The men of Company B bowed their heads as Doss offered a prayer for safety. Then they began to struggle up the sheer cliff face.

His unit captured the 400-foot Maeda Escarpment in an incredible sweep in which not one man was killed and only one minor injury was sustained. When a photographer arrived to capture the moment and asked how they pulled it off, Doss' company commander answered, "Doss prayed!"


Read it. You'll smile.

His Citation.


Posted by tree hugging sister at April 4, 2006 02:52 PM

Comments

Oh. My. God. I met the man. I covered the 50th Commemoration of the Battle of Okinawa in 1995. It was my first duty station, my first major assignment and my first newspaper I laid out.

I've got some great photos of him in my personal stash at home -- buried away and God knows if I can find them. If I do, I'll post 'em.

What a great man with a great history. I met him and Alejandro Ruiz that year. A couple of years later I got to meet a Viet Nam-era Medal of Honor recipient.

When you come across a Medal of Honor Recipient, wearing the medal, you salute the medal -- it's the highest honor our country can bestow and even four-star generals honor it over their rank. That was another awesome thing -- seeing all these stars saluting this old man, with corporal stripes. Fantastic.

Posted by: Cullen at April 4, 2006 03:03 PM

Wow, how neat, Cullen!

Posted by: Mr. Bingley at April 4, 2006 03:06 PM

How awesome, Cullen. How wonderfully awesome for you.

There's something stunning about seeing that Medal around someone's neck in the flesh ~ literally stops you dead in your tracks.

And we'd love to see the pics.

Posted by: tree hugging sister at April 4, 2006 03:08 PM

An amazing story. Thanks for the link, THS. Cullen -- get the photos posted, please!

Posted by: The_Real_JeffS at April 4, 2006 03:20 PM

Yeah, Cullen, what's taking so long? Post them!

Posted by: Ken Summers at April 4, 2006 04:19 PM

Cullen, that is a fantastic story. Find those pictures!

Posted by: Nightfly at April 4, 2006 04:30 PM

Picture posted, and I did send a trackback.

Posted by: cullen at April 4, 2006 05:20 PM