"Fellows, come over here and gather
around. Doss wants to pray for us."
Corporal Desmond Doss, the lanky medic,
cringed inside. This was not what he had meant when he'd suggested prayer to
Lieutenant Goronto. Faced with an assault on the 400 foot sheer cliff that split the
island of Okinawa, Doss had merely meant that each soldier might want to spend a few
moments in personal, private prayer, before the attack began.
Prayer certainly was in order that April
morning in 1945. Doss's 77th Division had landed on Okinawa after fierce
fighting in Guam and Leyte. The Japanese were dug in all over the island.
Presenting an additional barrier was the Maeda Escarpment, the 400 foot cliff that
stretched across the island. The escarpment rose with a steep, rugged rise for the
first 360 feet, then rose another 40-50 feet as a sheer face. Honeycombed throughout
were multi-story caves, tunnels, and enemy gun emplacements. Wresting control of the
escarpment from the enemy would be a major struggle, the Americans fighting not only a
well entrenched and often camouflaged enemy, but formidable terrain. When the order
to attack had come, Doss told Lieutenant Goronto, "I believe prayer is the best life
saver there is. The men should really pray before going up."
It really shouldn't have surprised anyone in
Doss's company that he would suggest prayer. Doss was always praying...or reading
his Bible. From the first day of training everyone could tell he was different.
A devout Seventh-Day Adventist, the first night Doss knelt beside his bunk in the
barracks, oblivious to the taunts around him and the boots they threw his way, to spend
his time talking to God. Regularly he pulled the small Bible his new wife had given
him for a wedding gift, and read it as well. Among the men of the unit, disdain
turned to resentment. Doss refused to train or work on Saturday, the Lord's Sabbath.
Though he felt no reservation about caring for the medical needs of the men or
otherwise helping them on the Sabbath, he refused to violate it. The fact that he
worked overtime to make up for it the rest of the week made little difference. Doss
was teased, harassed, and ridiculed. And it only got worse.-read more
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