Desmond Doss Prays on the Ridge at Hacksaw

The sun had not yet risen over Okinawa when Desmond Doss climbed the cliff. Around him, soldiers checked their rifles. Desmond checked nothing. He carried no gun. He never did. His fellow soldiers had teased him for years. They called him a coward. But Desmond had made a promise — to God and to himself. He would serve his country with everything he had. He simply would not kill to do it. He was a medic, and that was enough. Hacksaw Ridge was the most dangerous place on earth that day. The Japanese defenders waited at the top. Bullets cracked through the smoky air like thunder. Men fell. Men cried out. And then the order came to retreat. But Desmond would not go down. He crawled through the smoke and the fire. He found a wounded soldier and dragged him to the edge of the cliff. He tied a rope around the man's body, lowered him down slowly, and prayed out loud as he worked. Then he went back. He went back again and again. Each time he reached a wounded man, he whispered the same prayer: Please, Lord, let me get just one more. Seventy-five men. Seventy-five times he lowered someone to safety. Seventy-five times his prayer was answered. When Desmond finally came down from that ridge, the soldiers who had mocked him stood in silence. Some of them wiped their eyes. President Truman pinned the Medal of Honor onto Desmond's chest in 1945 and called him one of the bravest men America had ever produced. Desmond Doss never fired a single shot. But he believed with his whole heart that courage and faith together could move mountains — and on Hacksaw Ridge, they did.