The annual Four Chaplains Service sponsored by the VFW Post 2179 will take place Sunday, February 2 at 2 P.M. at the post home at 1 Veterans Lane and Route 36, Port Monmouth. USAT Dorchester
All are invited to attend the historic event and stay for refreshments following the Service.
The Four Chaplains Service is an annual event that commemorates the selfless acts of valor of the four Chaplains who perished on the USAT Dorchester on February 3, 1943.
The Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation was formed to further the cause of “unity without uniformity” that was exhibited by the chaplains of four different religions and encourages goodwill and cooperation among all people.
The chaplains, George Lansing Fox, a Methodist minister from Pennsylvania, Alexander Good, a rabbi from New York, Father John Washington, a Catholic priest from New Jersey and the Reverend Clark V. Poling a Reformed Church of American minister from Ohio were serving aboard the transport ship that left New York January 23,1943 enroute to Greenland, with 900 soldiers aboard, one of three ships escorted by the Coast Guard.
In the early morning of February 3, the ship, off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic, was torpedoed by a German submarine, U-223.
Power was eliminated on the ship and the terrified soldiers, many not wearing their life vests and asleep in their bunks in the bowels of the ship, had to find their way to the deck to escape. The four chaplains assisted the men in boarding reaching the deck and getting into lifeboats, then gave their own life jackets to those without them. The four chaplains then joined arms, said prayers and sang hymns as they went down with the ship. Of the 900 aboard, only 230 were rescued, many dying from the freezing water and temperatures before assistance could arrive.
Each of the chaplains was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Chaplain’s Medal of Honor. While nominated for the Congressional Medal of Honor, they were ineligible since their action did not occur while they were engaged in combat with the enemy. Congress created a special medal design for them holding the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor and designed for the four chaplains alone.
Each of the chaplains was relatively new to the service, and all were first Lieutenants in the Army. Rabbi Goode, Reverend Poling and Father Washington had all served as boy scout leaders before their military service. The four chaplains first met while undergoing training and preparing for their assignments in the European theater at the Army Chaplains School at Harvard university.
Great article about four honorable men🎖!