On October 12, 1945, President Harry S. Truman presented the Medal of Honor to U.S. Army Corporal Desmond T. Doss during a ceremony on the White House lawn. Doss, a devout Seventh-day Adventist who had volunteered as a combat medic with the 77th Infantry Division, refused to carry a weapon or take a human life because of his religious convictions. The presentation made him the first conscientious objector to receive the nation’s highest decoration for valor.
Doss earned the honor through repeated acts of courage during the Battle of Okinawa in April and May 1945, most notably at the Maeda Escarpment, known as Hacksaw Ridge. After intense artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire inflicted roughly 75 casualties and forced the American troops back from the 400-foot escarpment, Private First Class Doss refused to seek cover. He remained in the fire-swept area, carried wounded soldiers to the edge of the cliff, and lowered them one by one to safety on a rope-supported litter.
His actions proved that extraordinary military courage could be measured not only in combat against the enemy, but in the willingness to risk one’s life to save others.
