Mocked for His Faith
Desmond Doss was the first conscientious objector to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor. As a Seventh-day Adventist, he refused to carry a weapon or work on Sabbath - yet he volunteered for the most dangerous job in the Army: combat medic.
His unit mocked him. Officers tried to discharge him as mentally unfit. Fellow soldiers beat him and threw shoes at him during prayer. But Doss wouldn't quit.
Lord, Help Me Get One More
On May 5, 1945, at Hacksaw Ridge in Okinawa, his unit scaled a 400-foot cliff. Japanese forces counterattacked with devastating force, wounding scores of Americans. The order came to retreat.
Doss stayed. Alone on the ridge, under constant enemy fire, he dragged wounded men to the cliff's edge and lowered them down with rope. "Lord, help me get one more," he prayed over and over.
The Bravest Man on the Ridge
When night fell, he had saved 75 men - one at a time, crawling through enemy territory, never firing a shot. The men who had beaten him now owed him their lives.
"I knew if I ever once compromised, I was finished," Doss said. His faith wasn't weakness. It was the backbone that made him the bravest man on that ridge.
