Armed With Faith: Movie Shows Wwii Exploits Of Unarmed Medic

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — When Desmond Doss climbed up Hacksaw Ridge — a 400-foot high escarpment on the island of Okinawa with a wall of dug in Japanese soldiers at the top — he carried his Bible, his combat medic supplies and the weight of his moral convictions but no weapon. When the wounded American Army private eventually came back down for good, he was credited with repeatedly braving harsh enemy fire to treat fellow troops, carry them to the cliff's edge and lower them to safety. For his heroics, he was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor — a rarity for a conscientious objector. [...] he wanted to serve his country and ended up in a combat infantry unit, tending to the wounded under some of the war's most dangerous conditions. The movie details how his fellow troops — initially extremely suspicious of Doss — came to admire his moral and physical courage. Doss's Medal of Honor citation describes how his unit was driven back down the cliff by a barrage of mortar, artillery and machine gun fire but Doss voluntarily stayed behind, evacuating the wounded by rope over the cliff, all under intense enemy fire. Vaughn said they screened the movie for some veterans who found it "very cathartic" and praised it for bringing awareness to post-traumatic stress disorder through the character of Doss's father, playing by Hugo Weaving.