The Four Chaplains: The First Sunday of February

At 12:55 AM on February 3, 1943, a torpedo from German U-Boat 223 detonated on the starboard side and well below the waterline of the USTT Dorchester. The former coastal luxury passenger liner converted to troop transport, carrying 904 servicemen, civilian workers, and crew, sank in only 27 minutes, taking 672 souls to the bottom of the freezing North Atlantic. It was one of the worst shipboard disasters in US naval history.

The first Sunday of each February is designated Four Chaplains Sunday, commemorating the sacrificial service of Chaplains George Fox - a Methodist minister, Alexander Godde - a Jewish rabbi, Clark Poling - a minister of the Dutch Reform Church, and John Washington - a Catholic priest. Dorchester’s captain, aware of the wolf pack threat, had ordered all aboard to sleep in their life jackets, but many did not due to the stifling engine heat and discomfort of the bulky jackets.

The explosion knocked out electricity and radio communications, many below were already dead, and the rest clamored in the dark to get topside to clean air, light, and spare life jackets in lockers on the weather deck where it was found there were not enough lifejackets to outfit the shipboard survivors. Lifeboats were filled beyond capacity, and some capsized while life rafts tossed into the sea drifted away from reach.

It was there on deck that the four chaplains demonstrated their mettle, faith, and courage: shouting encouragement, comforting the injured, and guiding the disoriented, each chaplain removed his own life jacket, giving it to another, knowing it would cost them their own lives.

Later on shore, many survivors would tell of these four men and how they died serving their country and their God. One said, “As I left the ship, I looked back and saw the Chaplains…with their hands clasped, praying for the boys. They never made any attempt to save themselves, but they did try to save the others.”

Another said, “Their voices (praying and singing hymns) were the only thing that kept me going.”

There are many more remembrances of these men of valor, and you would do well to look up “The Four Chaplains” and read some of the comments. Do you good.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, former 5-Star General of the Army, prescribed in 1960, then as President of the United States, a special Chaplain’s Medal of Honor for these men. It was approved by an act of Congress on July 14, 1960, and awarded to the Chaplain’s next of kin on January 18, 1961. The medal is to carry the same weight and importance of extraordinary heroism as the Medal of Honor.

The Whitehall Chapters of the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars has asked that I, as acting Chaplain, remind our citizens of the Four Chaplains Sunday and ask that you remember these men for what they did.

These four had very little in common religiously but shared a common humanity, as do we. The Rabbi, Alexander Goode, didn’t ask while handing over his life jacket, {“Are you a Jew or a Gentile?” Father Washington didn’t ask, “Are you a Catholic?” before handing over his; nor did Ministers Fox and Poling ask, “Do you go to church?” but they did all choose death to save another’s life.

They centered on our common humanity, not the differences which divide us.

In Jn.15:13, Jesus of Nazareth said,” Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his fellow.” Now you and I may never be called upon to live out that verse as did these four Chaplains, but we do have the chance to set ourselves aside to county another as more important than we are, if only for a few moments, to serve, guide, and comfort those whom we meet, those who for an instant are actually in our care. Press on!