Desmond Doss

1919–2006

Corporal

Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division

Documented decorations

Purple Heart
The Medal of Honor citation records grenade and rifle wounds on Okinawa in May 1945.
Public sources
- Congressional Medal of Honor Society — Desmond T. Doss
- U.S. Army — health clinic dedication article (two Bronze Stars with “V”; wounded on Okinawa)
Bronze Star Medal
two awards, each with “V” device
Army public affairs records the two Bronze Stars for Guam and the Philippines in 1944, before Okinawa.
Public sources
- U.S. Army — Cpl. Desmond Doss clinic dedication
- Army Medical Department Center of History & Heritage — Doss Medal of Honor citation

Desmond Thomas Doss would not carry a rifle. The Army still sent him as a company aidman. Before the Okinawa citation that became a Medal of Honor, the Army’s own later public account names two Bronze Star Medals with the “V” device for work under fire on Guam and in the Philippines in 1944.

The Purple Heart belongs to the wounds the Medal of Honor citation already states: a grenade in the legs, then a compound fracture of the arm, still on the escarpment. This page will not invent a count the Army article does not give, and it will not treat a film title as a general order.

He is on the World War II roll for the medic’s work. The decorations listed here are the ones the Army has put in public prose. We do not add a Combat Infantryman Badge or a later civilian honor as if it were a U.S. personal decoration.

A longer service essay is on the American War Heroes roll. That page does not invent medals. This page does not replace it.

A publisher register — not a verification

This decorations register is publisher-curated from public records — Medal of Honor Society citations, published general orders, and official Army, Navy, and Marine Corps biographies. It is not a verified-veteran product. Notice Nearby does not certify service and does not issue badges.

A paid or unpaid memorial does not enroll anyone here. Checkout, VET50, and a family’s mention of service on an obituary are not applications to this list. We add a name only when a public official source names the decoration.

Claiming a decoration that was not awarded is stolen valor. It is a disrespect to those who earned the medal and, in some cases, a federal crime. This register will not invent an award to fill a page.

These pages are a historical register. They are not Legal Publication, not a newspaper notice, and not proof that a statute was satisfied.