What If Soldiers Fought with Pillows?: True Stories of Imagination and Courage
We do not need magic to change the world We carry all the power we need inside ourselves already we have the power to imagine better J K Rowling
13.50 Where does your imagination take you Maybe you see yourself traveling back in time blasting off into space or battling supervillains with your superstrength But what if your imagination could also help you come up with solutions for real world crises such as war famine and human-rights violations Sound impossible What if the impossible was actually possible When we ask big fantastical questions we may just discover new ways to change the world for the better Our imagination can help shape the future by daring us to picture the world as we’d like it to be The people and organizations in the following stories had an idea about how they could make a difference But more importantly they decided to take that idea and turn it into action In our imagination we can do anything and be anyone That can be true in reality too
What if soldiers fought with pillows instead of pistols
During the Second World War the US Army trained its men to kill or be killed One soldier would do neither A deeply religious man Desmond Doss was willing to serve in the war but refused to carry a weapon he carried a Bible instead And because of this he was bullied by fellow soldiers One officer even wanted him discharged for mental illness But Doss wouldn’t change his mind He wanted to save lives not take them He became a medic and was classified a conscientious objector because of his refusal to carry a weapon When he was injured weeks later Doss treated his own wounds so another medic wouldn’t have to risk his life getting to him He was finally put on a stretcher hours later but rolled off to give it to a soldier in worse shape While waiting for help Doss was injured again He made himself a splint and crawled to an aid station Doss never hurt or killed an enemy soldier He did however save seventy-five of his own men that day on Hacksaw Ridge And for his service he became the first conscientious objector to receive the highest American military award the Congressional Medal of Honor On May 5 1945 in Okinawa Japan during one of the bloodiest battles of the Second World War Doss’s unit was ordered to capture the Maeda Escarpment nicknamed Hacksaw Ridge no matter the cost But after the Americans had scaled the steep rock cliff to secure the ridge the Japanese attacked The Americans retreated quickly leaving the wounded stranded Doss however stayed with those left behind He carried each injured soldier to the edge of the escarpment and lowered him to safety It took twelve hours yet somehow Doss didn’t get hurt
