Serving His Country
Doss went to school at the Park Avenue Seventh-day Adventist Church, but when he was in the eighth grade, the Great Depression started, and he was forced to drop out. To support his family, Doss found work at the Lynchburg Lumber Company. By the time World War II broke out, Doss was working as a joiner at a shipyard in Newport News, Virginia.
Source: Courtesy of Desmond Doss Council
The military offered him deferment because of his shipyard work, but Doss turned it down. He believed in the war and wanted to do anything he could to help. So on April 1, 1942, Doss drafted into the US Army. He trained with the 77th Infantry Division, which had been reactivated following the outbreak of WWII.