Hacksaw Ridge

 The story of Desmond Doss during WW2 is something I'd been unaware of until a few years ago.  I did not see Hacksaw Ridge when it was released in 2016, but the THC Son suggested we watch it when he was visiting last week.  It is a very powerful movie.  Like any film portraying real events there is a good deal of fictionalizing, but the core of the tale is faithful to the essence of Desmond Doss.  And faith is the core of the story, as Doss was the first conscientious objector in our nation's history to receive the Congressional Medal of Honor.  If anything, the movie understates his exploits and heroism.

The power of Desmond's religious conviction is conveyed honestly and I think director Mel Gibson's ability to convey faith, as demonstrated in his previous directorial efforts, is a perfect match for the subject matter.  The movie was filmed in Australia with mostly Aussie actors except for Doss (Andrew Garfield) and his sergeant (Vince Vaughn).

The power of the movie is enhanced at the end by brief excerpts of late in life interviews with Doss, and his company commander, who initially tried to get Doss removed from his command.  Doss passed in 2006 at the age of 87. 

The events portrayed at Hacksaw Ridge on Okinawa in late April and May of 1945 actually took place over a three week period.  Omitted from the movie is Desmond's service as a combat medic in the 1944 assaults on Guam and Leyte, for which he received two Bronze Stars for his bravery.

After the war, Doss spent 5 1/2 years being treated for tuberculosis, contracted on Leyte, during which he had a lung and five ribs removed before being discharged in 1951 on a 90% disability.

Below is the full text of his Medal of Honor citation.

He was a company aidman when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar, and machine-gun fire crashed into them, inflicting approximately 75 casualties and driving the others back. Pfc. Doss refused to seek cover and remained in the fire-swept area with the many stricken, carrying them one by one to the edge of the escarpment and there lowering them on a rope-supported litter down the face of a cliff to friendly hands. 

On 2 May, he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire in rescuing a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment; and two days later he treated four men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them to safety. 

On 5 May, he unhesitatingly braved enemy shelling and small-arms fire to assist an artillery officer. He applied bandages, moved his patient to a spot that offered protection from small-arms fire, and, while artillery and mortar shells fell close by, painstakingly administered plasma. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, Pfc. Doss crawled to him where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety while continually exposed to enemy fire.

On 21 May, in a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he remained in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, fearlessly risking the chance that he would be mistaken for an infiltrating Japanese and giving aid to the injured until he was himself seriously wounded in the legs by the explosion of a grenade. Rather than call another aidman from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited five hours before litter bearers reached him and started carrying him to cover. The trio was caught in an enemy tank attack and Pfc. Doss, seeing a more critically wounded man nearby, crawled off the litter and directed the bearers to give their first attention to the other man. Awaiting the litter bearers' return, he was again struck, this time suffering a compound fracture of one arm. With magnificent fortitude he bound a rifle stock to his shattered arm as a splint and then crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. 

Through his outstanding bravery and unflinching determination in the face of desperately dangerous conditions Pfc. Doss saved the lives of many soldiers. His name became a symbol throughout the 77th Infantry Division for outstanding gallantry far above and beyond the call of duty.