Private Ernest Doss was a different sort of fellow as he stepped onto the training field as a military enlistee back in World War II. He was born into a Lynchburg, VA family; his father bore the scars of war in a previous era. That made an indelible impact on him. He didn’t want to carry a rifle - and he didn’t want to work on Saturdays, which were his day of religious rest.

 

He confounded his military superiors and they found no way other than booting him out of the service.

 

Private Doss, he emphasized, was a conscientious objector to carrying weapons. 

 

His military brass wondered, how do you fight a war without guns?

 

That’s the story told in the recent motion picture, Hacksaw Ridge.

 

Private Doss wanted to serve in the military - that wasn’t the issue. He wanted to save lives, rather than kill people. He wanted to be a medic.

 

The story unfolds in the spring of 1945, just as the Americans began their push through Okinawa and other Southwest Pacific hellholes that with victory, to secure our supremacy over the Japanese.

 

He was granted his medic position, without the weapon, and in May of that year, was among the Americans who assaulted a bastian of well-armed, dug-in enemy foe.

 

It was a Friday, and Americans, before ascending the ropes to get to the top of the ridge, ran into their defeated comrades who had suffered devastating losses.

 

But Private Doss went up the ropes with his fellow troops and was quickly into the mayhem, hand-to-hand combat and insufferable losses previous companies had suffered. Doss went to work in the face of withering Japanese assaults, stabilizing fellow soldiers and helping them back to the edge of the ridge.

 

By day’s end, the Japanese put a horrendous assault on the Americans and the call for retreat was made. Americans scrambled over the ridge and down the ropes to safety below.

 

But not Private Doss.

 

In the darkness of the night, he sought out fellow soldiers, wounded and unable to make it down.

 

One by one, he helped them down - carrying or dragging them to the edge.

 

“Just one more,” the young soldier said to himself. Then he sought out another soldier and helped him down.

 

“Just one more.”

 

It went on for hours. He even helped a pair of wounded Japanese down over the ropes.

 

His fellow soldiers were amazed at the effort. He finally escaped to safe ground below and began recuperating.

 

The next day, a Saturday, his commander came to him and asked if he would forego` his “Saturday religion” and make the assault again.

 

That he did, helping more to safety.

 

But this time, he was injured and came down via gurney. His injuries were such he was medevaced to the U.S.

 

Private Doss, the conscious objector, stood at the time as the only American soldier to receive The Congressional Medal of Honor. He was recognized by President Harry Truman at the White House.

 

I’ve told you much of the story, but the film is very much worth viewing.

 

It gives new meaning to Onward Christian Soldier.

 

And it makes me think of the countless Christian Soldiers we have in our midst.

 

Doing well - for the benefit of their neighbors.

 

We write about many of your stories every week. That is our privilege.