An Unsung Hero

Before the Vietnam era, Hollywood movies celebrated the heroism of America's fighting men. Films like the Howard Hawks's classic Sergeant York (1941) told Americans the compelling stories of real-life soldiers against the backdrop of their nation's destiny. (Alvin C. York was a hero of World War I.)

William Wyler's The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) depicted the lives of several American G.I.s after they returned home. One of the characters in the film, Homer Parrish, a young man who lost his hands during the war and finds it difficult to adjust to his old life back home, was played by Harold Russell, who was not an actor but an actual soldier who had in fact lost his hands in the war.

A marked change took place in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Francis Ford Coppola intended Patton (1970) as a satire of the WWII general: one of the original titles was Patton: Lust for Glory. Oliver Stone's Born on the Fourth of July (1989) is an anti-war update of The Best Years of Our Lives.

But as Vietnam recedes into the history books, a return to positive depictions of U.S. soldiers and veterans has recently produced films such as Forrest Gump (1994), Saving Private Ryan (1998), and the HBO miniseries "Band of Brothers" (2001).

The latest film in this revival of inspirational stories of true American heroes is The Conscientious Objector, a documentary that tells the remarkable true story of Desmond T. Doss, the only American soldier ever to be awarded the Medal of Honor despite refusing to carry a weapon.

Desmond T. Doss may be the most amazing American hero of World War II you've never heard of.

Doss, a devout Seventh Day Adventist, did not consider himself a conscientious objector but rather "a conscientious cooperator." As the film relates, Doss's entire life was shaped by an illustration of the Ten Commandments that hung on the wall of his childhood home. As a boy, he walked six miles to donate blood to an accident victim when he heard a call for donors announced on the radio. He held life to be a precious gift from God, and took very seriously the admonition "Thou shall not kill." (On the illustration that hung on the wall, that commandment was represented by an image of Cain standing over the body of his slain brother Abel. In the film, Doss speaks of being horrified by the idea that anyone would kill his own brother.)

When President Roosevelt declared war on Japan, Doss, who was offered a deferment, signed up for duty. He expected he would be allowed to serve as an Army medic--his goal was to save life rather than take it--but, as Doss says in the film, he quickly learned that the Army was rather uninterested in what he wanted to do.

When Doss informed military officials that he refused to carry a weapon as a tenet of his faith, he was sent to a conscientious objector camp, which was populated mostly by people who either did not support their country or its objectives or who did not wish to risk their lives on the battlefield.

Doss objected to being assigned to the camp. He did support his country and its objectives--"we were fighting for our religious liberty and our freedoms," he says--and he wanted to serve on the frontlines, in harm's way. He simply did not want to fire a weapon.

The Conscientious Objector follows Doss's incredible odyssey as a member of the 77th Infantry Division, from the ostracism he faced in his unit from fellow soldiers who thought Doss was a coward hiding behind his religion, to his courageous and truly miraculous efforts to rescue wounded soldiers during one of the bloodiest battles of the war.

The film reunites Doss with surviving members of the division for the first time in 56 years. Together, the men revisit the bases, camps, and battlefields where they served side-by-side, evoking painful memories and astonishing stories of heroism in the face of certain death.

Doss's remarkable story became the focus of a "True Life Stories" comic book, which just happened to be read by the documentary's writer-director, Terry Benedict, when he was a young man. Benedict has given his boyhood hero a moving tribute with The Conscientious Objector, one of the most incredible films I have ever seen.

During the harrowing process of making the movie, Benedict says, his own life was changed.

"You think you're living the good Christian life, walking in faith, but when I started the project, I learned what it really meant to walk in faith," Benedict has said. "[Desmond] is always at peace and I've learned how to be at peace when everything is breaking out around you. There was no way I couldn't be affected [by Doss' story] and not be a better person."

I was fortunate enough to screen the film at the Heartland Film Festival in Indianapolis. Heartland is unique among film festivals, devoted to films that tell uplifting stories and affirm abiding values--films like Forrest Gump, Saving Private Ryan, "Band of Brothers," and The Conscientious Objector.

So far the film has not been picked up by a major distributor, but its official launch date is November 11. For more information on the film and to find out when it might be playing in a theater near you, visit the film's website at www.desmonddoss.com./

Eric Cox is a research fellow at the Sagamore Institute and a movie columnist for TAEmag.com.

The President of the United States
in the name of The Congress
takes pleasure in presenting the
Medal of Honor
to

DOSS, DESMOND T.
Rank and organization: Private First Class, U.S. Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division. Place and date: Near Urasoe Mura, Okinawa, Ryukyu Islands, 29 April-21 May 1945. Entered service at: Lynchburg, Va. Birth: Lynchburg, Va. G.O. No.: 97, 1 November 1945. Citation: He was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high As our troops gained the summit, a heavy concentration of artillery, mortar and machinegun 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 1 by 1 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 2 days later he treated 4 men who had been cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through a shower of grenades to within 8 yards of enemy forces in a cave's mouth, where he dressed his comrades' wounds before making 4 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 aid man from cover, he cared for his own injuries and waited 5 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 1 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.

There could be another movie about Doss in the works:

http://www.dealmemo.com/Content/April2002/News0425.htm

Pandemonium Has Acquired The Life Story Of Desmond T. Doss

Former Fox boss Bill Mechanic's Disney-based Pandemonium banner has acquired the life story of Desmond T. Doss, a decorated WWII soldier who refused to fire a gun.

Producer David Permut brought Mechanic the project and they will produce it together. Terry Benedict, a documentarian who mounted a film about Doss, has been recruited for script duty.

Doss was drafted to fight in WWII, but when he told the board that his religious beliefs wouldn't allow him to carry a weapon, he was told to go home. He refused on moral grounds, and, though ostracized and ridiculed by rifle-carrying cohorts, was sent to the South Pacific. There, Doss was credited with saving 75 men during the battle of Okinawa, and was awarded the government's highest award, the Medal of Honor.

After "Saving Private Ryan," "We Were Soldiers" and "Black Hawk Down," mounting a war film that doesn't seem derivative is difficult.

"I don't think I'd make a war movie and I don't think this is one," Mechanic said. "This is truly a character piece that happens to have war as a backdrop. Even though it is set during WWII, it is a story that reflects the prevailing feeling we still have toward war. Here is a guy who felt that war was just, but that killing was morally wrong. That is the dichotomy most people feel, that there are things worth fighting for to protect, contrasted by there being too much killing in the world. That is the dynamic that sold me and when David showed me a piece done on TV about Desmond 20 years ago, I said yes by the time it was done. It's a great unknown story."

Mechanic hopes to mount the film quickly.

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...7th Cavalry medic & C.O. Spec/5 Calvin BOUKNIGHT took an AK-47 Round in the back while protecting his fallen comrade he was working furiously on...

...outside Landing Zone X-Ray's perimeter during continuous human wave assaults by Communist North Vietnamese Army Regulars.

...His name now graces the 3rd panel of the Vietnam Wall not far from his final resting place at Arlington National Cemetary.

...Half of our medics, C.O.'s as well, also lost their lives in that Valley of Death known as the IA DRANG Valley of November 1965.

...True selfless Heroes with a PASSION for the sake of others.

See:

http://www.lzxray.com
http://www.WeWereSoldiers.com

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