Corporal Desmond T. Doss, a Congressional Medal of Honor recipient, received the award on 12 October 1945 from President Harry S. Truman. Serving as a Private First Class in the United States Army, Medical Detachment, 307th Infantry, 77th Infantry Division, he was a company aid man when the 1st Battalion assaulted a jagged escarpment 400 feet high. After artillery, mortar, and machinegun fire inflicted about 75 casualties and drove others back, he refused to seek cover and remained with the wounded, carrying them one by one to the edge of the escarpment and lowering them by rope-supported litter down the cliff. On 2 May he exposed himself to heavy rifle and mortar fire to rescue a wounded man 200 yards forward of the lines on the same escarpment. Two days later he treated four men cut down while assaulting a strongly defended cave, advancing through grenades to within eight yards of enemy forces at the cave mouth, dressing their wounds, and making four separate trips under fire to evacuate them. On 5 May he braved enemy shelling and small arms fire to assist an artillery officer, bandaged him, moved him to protection from small arms fire, and administered plasma while artillery and mortar shells fell nearby. Later that day, when an American was severely wounded by fire from a cave, he crawled to the man where he had fallen 25 feet from the enemy position, rendered aid, and carried him 100 yards to safety under enemy fire. On 21 May, during a night attack on high ground near Shuri, he stayed in exposed territory while the rest of his company took cover, aiding the injured until he was seriously wounded in the legs by a grenade. He treated his own injuries and waited five hours for litter bearers, then during an enemy tank attack crawled off his litter so bearers could aid a more critically wounded man first. Struck again and suffering a compound fracture of one arm, he splinted it with a rifle stock and crawled 300 yards over rough terrain to the aid station. Through extraordinary bravery and determination under desperate conditions, he saved many soldiers' lives and became a symbol of outstanding gallantry throughout the 77th Infantry Division.