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Remembering Four Chaplains who gave their lives
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Remembering Four Chaplains who gave their lives
“Feb. 3 marks the anniversary of the sinking of the United States Army Transport Dorchester and the selfless acts of four Army chaplains who died aboard during World War II,” reports Military.com.
The four chaplains, also known as the “Immortal Chaplains” or the “Dorchester Chaplains,” represented three faiths: Catholic, Jewish and Protestant.
The Four Chaplains Story
The 368-foot steamship Dorchester, operated by the War Shipping Administration, was part of a convoy that left New York in January 1943 bound for the Army Command Base at Narsarsuaq in southern Greenland.
To sail from Newfoundland to Greenland, the ship would have to navigate icy seas and pass through waters infested with German U-boats.
After midnight on Feb. 3, 1943, the Dorchester was torpedoed by a U-boat in the Labrador Sea off Greenland and went down in 20 minutes, according to official records.
Of the 904 aboard, 675 drowned or died of hypothermia in the frigid waters. It was believed to be the worst single death toll for a U.S. convoy during WWII.
The Dorchester’s loss is remembered most for the sacrifice of the “Four Chaplains” — two Protestants, a rabbi and a Catholic priest. They were all Army first lieutenants who went down with the ship.
The four chaplains had spent much of their time calming nervous young soldiers, even putting on evening variety shows to help pass the time.
When the torpedo hit, the chaplains guided men below decks to the lifeboats and handed out life jackets.
“Just before our ship went down, these chaplains took off their own life preservers and gave them to us,” one of the survivors, 19-year-old Daniel O’Keefe of the U.S. Merchant Marine Service, said a few weeks after the tragedy. “They were standing on the deck praying hand in hand as our lifeboat drifted out of sight.”
Survivor John Ladd also recalled the chaplains giving away their life vests, according to the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation. “It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven,” he said.
Another survivor, William Bednar, told The Baltimore Sun in 1997: “I could hear men crying, pleading, praying and swearing. I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage to the men. Their voices were probably the only things that kept me sane.”
Who Were the Four Chaplains?
The Four Chaplains were Lt. George L. Fox, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania; Lt. Alexander D. Goode, a Reform rabbi from New York; Lt. Clark V. Poling, a Reformed Church in America minister from Ohio; and Lt. John P. Washington, a Roman Catholic priest from New Jersey…
They were each posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart.
There were attempts in Congress to award the four chaplains the Medal of Honor, but the efforts did not succeed under the strict guidelines for awarding the medal.
Instead, a Special Medal for Heroism was authorized by Congress and awarded by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1961.
[Dr. Chaps’ comment: I’m honored to have served Sailors at sea, as a Navy Chaplain. We are willing to risk our own lives, as some heroes actually did, to serve our men and save a few souls for Christ. Let’s petition Congress for religious freedom for all military chaplains.]
Watch! Dr. Chaps’ interview on Fox News:
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Please select here to sign urgent petition, and we will fax all 100 Senators (saving you time!) to PROTECT MILITARY CHAPLAINS RIGHT TO PRAY “IN JESUS’ NAME” or according to conscience. Or sign free option here.
God Bless you, in Jesus’ name.
Chaplain Gordon Klingenschmitt, PhD
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