Desmond Doss is different from many war heroes.
His peers who were also awarded with the Medal of Honor understood the violence of war and accepted what they felt was necessary to be victorious, to come out on the right side of a battle.
Doss understood the violence. That’s why he rejected it.
Desmond Thomas Doss enlisted into the U.S. Army in April 1942. He could have taken a deferment because of his job at the Newport News naval shipyard, but he chose to go, even though he had sworn as a boy to never touch a gun after witnessing his father pull one on his uncle during an alcohol-influenced fight.
He also was deeply moved as a child by a framed illustration of the Ten Commandments that hung in his family’s home. He vowed to follow all of them, including “Thou shalt not kill” and “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy,” which for Seventh-day Adventists is Saturday.