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A Favorite Hero

Posted on Nov 03, 2009

A Favorite Hero
Lee-McRae College, a liberal arts college in Banner Elk, North Carolina is well known for their drama and performing arts department. Seventh-day Adventists in the area were very surprised recently to find our World War II hero, Desmond Doss, featured in one of their plays. "The Risks of Heroes" premiered during the last week of September and ran public performances until October 4, 2009. Dr. Janet Speer, the chairperson of the Performing Arts Department, wrote the play, which led out with the story of Doss. "Doss was definitely the most compelling character," she said, "I saw his story on television and fell in love with it." The Boone newspaper, "Mountain Times" did a feature story on the play, which included a picture of the student, Jarrett Koski portraying Doss in his medic uniform. The students said Doss was one of their favorite heroes of the play. His extraordinary rescue of 75 wounded men during the American raid on Okinawa was featured in the 2006 documentary, "The Concientous Objector", which aired on the History Channel. Dr. Speer noted that even comic books were written about Doss after he received the Congressional Medal of Honor from President Harry Truman in 1948. Doss was the first conscientious objector to obtain that award. Actual World War II clips were used for the play. After the section on Doss, the song, "Down by the Riverside" was played, which made it more poignant., "I don't want to study war no more." Truly we all long for that day when the earth will be made new, the lion will lay down with the lamb, and God will wipe every tear from our eyes.