The Persistence of Desmond Doss

Part 2 in a Series on Persistence

His rope-burned hands were bleeding now, but he couldn’t let go. The weight on the line felt heavier with each passing moment, threatening to pull him right over the edge of the cliff, still he held tight. Lowering his burden little by little.

His position on the edge of the cliff was completely exposed to enemy fire. A hundred yards away a Japanese soldier had Doss in his sights. Taking a deep breath, Doss’ opponent squeezed the trigger. Clink! For the third time in a row the gun jammed.

Finally, the rope went slack as the weight of his fellow soldier was taken by the ground, three-hundred and some feet below. Doss knelt. With the sound of gunshots ringing in the distance, his head resting on blood-saturated ground, he prayed.

“Please, Lord, help me get one more!”

Crouched low and often crawling, Doss made his way across the darkened battlefield once again. Bodies littered the ground and he stopped at each one – checking for, hoping for, life.

How I Came to Write about Private Doss

This series on persistence, may be the hardest set of articles I’ve set out to write yet. I have to admit that I found myself sitting at my computer and feeling altogether stumped once again. This time with Part 2 - an article I had already put hours into.

But, if at first you don’t succeed try, try again, right? That seems to be the lesson of this series for me. It’s a good rule to follow, but sometimes a little redirection can also be helpful and this time around I have my siblings to thank for coming to my aid…

My sister couldn’t help but laugh a little when she heard that I was ready to give up on yet another article about persistence. Her recommendation was that I write about Desmond Doss, a private who served in the U.S. Army during WW2 and who was awarded the Medal of Honour for rescuing fellow soldiers at the risk of his own life.

“He’s the most persistent man who ever lived.” I believe is what she said.

The problem was, I wasn’t in need of an example. I’d already put hours into an article telling the story of another persistent man. I just needed to finish with the application, to find a way of tying it all together.

But when my brother came along a few minutes later and made the same suggestion, I figured the idea might be worth looking into. Perhaps I did need a fresh start - some fresh inspiration. So, my next few hours were spent - not writing - but researching. Being inspired by a man who truly walked persistence out.

Now, I’m super excited to be sharing a bit of his story with you!

The Persistent Hero

Desmond Doss.

A young man from Virginia, who enlisted to serve in World War 2. Doss was actually drafted but, he was given the opportunity to be exempted from service, due to his position at a shipyard, and turned it down. He believed that he needed to fight for his country.

A Seventh Day Adventist, he also believed that it was wrong to kill. Holding strictly to the fifth commandment, Doss refused to use or even touch a rifle. A conviction that got him into no end of trouble during his military training and eventually got him classified as a ‘conscientious objector’. Doss didn’t think this title was accurate, as he believed the war was justified but that killing was nevertheless wrong. He considered himself more accurately described as a ‘conscientious cooperator.’

Doss was deployed as an unarmed medic with the 77^th division. Which was sent first to Guam, then to Leyte in the Philippines, and finally joined an allied invasion of Okinawa - an island three hundred and forty miles south of Japan. It was for his role in this final conflict that Doss was later awarded the Medal of Honour by President Truman himself.

The famous battle against the Japanese was fought at the top of the Maeda Escarpment (which the soldiers dubbed Hacksaw Ridge due to the terrible carnage that took place there). The American troops ascended the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff by means of cargo nets that Doss and two fellow soldiers secured. At the top, they were faced with a nearly impenetrable battlefield. A piece of land that was heavily entrenched with enemies and already strewn with the dead bodies of hundreds of other American soldiers.

“The Japanese had been there for years, they had that mountain honeycombed and camouflaged, it looked like natural terrain. That's what we had to face." – Desmond Doss

One hundred and fifty-five men of the 77^th division scaled the Maeda Escarpment, of which Doss was one. Only fifty-five of those were able to climb back down when the troop was ordered to retreat. Though he wasn’t injured, Desmond Doss ignored the order and remained on the battlefield with the numerous casualties.

"I had these men up there and I shouldn't leave 'em, they were my buddies, some of the men had families, and they trust me. I didn't feel like I should value my life above my buddy's, so I decided to stay with them and take care of as many of them as I could. I didn't know how I was gonna do it." – Desmond Doss

 As night fell, Doss began to rescue the injured. With nothing but a rope and his own strength, he lowered one soldier at a time down the three-hundred-and-fifty-foot cliff. He worked all night, often under enemy fire.

 A Japanese soldier later recalled having Doss in his sights multiple times, but every time he went to fire on the exposed medic his gun jammed. Doss attributed his survival and the success of his rescue mission to God, saying:

 "When you have explosions and bursts so close you can practically feel it, and you’re not  wounded. When I should have been killed a number of times. I know who I owe my life to as well as my men. That's why I like to tell this story to the glory of God, because I know from the human standpoint, I should not be here."

After each individual rescue, Desmond paused to pray that God would help him save another.

"I just kept prayin', 'Lord, please help me get more and more, one more, until there was none left, and I'm the last one down.'" – Desmond Doss

That night on Hacksaw Ridge, Doss saved the lives of approximately seventy-five men!

A Shared Objective

The story of Desmond Doss didn’t stop there. He continued to demonstrate courage, selflessness, and persistence in the battles of Okinawa. He was badly injured in service. Later he came home to a proud family and a proud country. In the essence of time, I’ll have to leave those stories for you to look up for yourself but, before we finish, let me ask you this:

Do you go after men like Desmond Doss did?

Desmond Doss isn’t just an example of persistence. He persistently sought to rescue men. An objective that you and I, as Christians, are supposed to share.

In Part 1 of this series, we looked at what persistence is and found that true persistence requires motivation. In other words, to persist well you need a reason to persist.

Private Doss had a reason. He was determined to save the lives of as many of his men as he possibly could. Though death surrounded him. Though he was a prime target for the enemy. Though the task demanded every ounce of his physical, mental, and emotional strength, he persisted. You see, Doss knew he was in a battle but he also knew just what he was fighting for.

We are in a battle too, but we often forget that fact. We also have been charged with the mission of saving lives, but we don’t seem to take it as seriously as Private Doss did. We seem to be missing both the motivation and the persistence! 

 The gospel is our primary tool for saving lives, yet none of us appear to be very eager to use it. We don’t like to witness. We don’t like to look silly or to endanger our reputations. So instead of refusing to retreat like Private Doss, instead of praying that we won’t have to leave any casualties behind, we’re standing at the cliff’s edge wishing we could just climb down. 

Christians, we are the medics in this war, the rescue agents, but we aren’t doing our job!

 We may share the gospel - once in a while and generally only if opportunity is placed right in our laps. To us the good news is an obligation, something we are required to speak of out of Christian duty. We don’t know what it is to persistently seek after men’s souls. To earnestly pray that the Lord would give us just one more. Rather we are all too ready to check ‘share the gospel’ off of our spiritual to do list and be able to say we met the Christian requirement.

Desmond Doss wasn’t like us. He stayed on Hacksaw Ridge by choice while the rest of his troop descended to safety. He willingly crawled through a bloody, body-strewn field again and again because he couldn’t bear the thought of leaving someone behind. He loved his fellow soldiers and spent every ounce of his strength on their behalf. It wasn’t a pleasurable task - the rope cut into his hands, his whole body was covered in dirt and other men’s blood, and while he lay on that cliff’s edge lowering men to safety his own life was placed in danger. But Doss wasn’t content to do anything less than rescue every man that was in his power to save.

Why are we content with less than that?

Jesus said that He alone is the means of salvation. Do we believe that? Do we really believe that those who do not have faith in Christ are going to Hell?

I’ll admit that it’s not a nice fact to think about but it is an important one to remember. Because if we forget that we are trying to save lives, we lose our motivation to persist.

Let’s learn some persistence and not give up on the men and women who are stranded on our own Hacksaw Ridge!

In Christ

quiana