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February 3, 1943. The USAT Dorchester was off the coast of Greenland, packed with over 900 soldiers, when a German U-boat torpedo ripped into her hull. Lights went out, freezing water started pouring in, and men were trapped below deck, screaming, disoriented, with no idea which way was up.
In the middle of that chaos, four Army chaplains—a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, a Dutch Reformed minister, and a Jewish rabbi—started handing out life vests from a locker. Four different faiths, one instinct: get these boys out alive.
Then the vests ran out. So each of them took off his own and handed it to a soldier standing in line. They didn't think twice. They just gave away their only shot at surviving a night in the North Atlantic.
Survivors said that as the ship went down, the four of them were still on deck, arms linked, praying together, singing hymns: a rabbi and a priest and two ministers standing shoulder to shoulder until the water took them.
Of the 902 men aboard, only 230 made it.
The rules at the time meant they couldn't receive the Medal of Honor, since they died in a rescue rather than in combat. They got the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart instead. It took Congress until 1961 to create something equal to what they deserved: the Chaplain's Medal for Heroism, made specifically for these four men and never given to anyone else since.
Lt. George Fox. Lt. Alexander Goode. Lt. John Washington. Lt. Clark Poling.
February 3rd is now Four Chaplains Day.
More info:
en.wikipedia.org
February 3, 1943. The USAT Dorchester was off the coast of Greenland, packed with over 900 soldiers, when a German U-boat torpedo ripped into her hull. Lights went out, freezing water started pouring in, and men were trapped below deck, screaming, disoriented, with no idea which way was up.
In the middle of that chaos, four Army chaplains—a Methodist minister, a Catholic priest, a Dutch Reformed minister, and a Jewish rabbi—started handing out life vests from a locker. Four different faiths, one instinct: get these boys out alive.
Then the vests ran out. So each of them took off his own and handed it to a soldier standing in line. They didn't think twice. They just gave away their only shot at surviving a night in the North Atlantic.
Survivors said that as the ship went down, the four of them were still on deck, arms linked, praying together, singing hymns: a rabbi and a priest and two ministers standing shoulder to shoulder until the water took them.
Of the 902 men aboard, only 230 made it.
The rules at the time meant they couldn't receive the Medal of Honor, since they died in a rescue rather than in combat. They got the Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart instead. It took Congress until 1961 to create something equal to what they deserved: the Chaplain's Medal for Heroism, made specifically for these four men and never given to anyone else since.
Lt. George Fox. Lt. Alexander Goode. Lt. John Washington. Lt. Clark Poling.
February 3rd is now Four Chaplains Day.
More info: