As the U.S. Army transport ship Dorchester was sinking in the icy waters of the North Atlantic, four chaplains handed out spare life jackets to negligent soldiers, who had left theirs below deck. When these vests ran out, the ministers calmly removed and handed their own to desperate men. Finally, the four linked arms and prayed, recited Scripture, and sang as they and the ship slid to a watery grave.

It was after midnight, February 3, 1943. In convoy, the Dorchester was 150 miles from Greenland. These were dangerous waters to begin with (the Germans had been sinking 100 Allied ships per month), and the captain’s sense of peril was heightened by an ominous sonar report from the escort vessel Tampa. He ordered the 902 men on board to sleep in their clothing and life preservers, just in case. Because the berths were stuffy down below and the jackets were cumbersome, many of the men ignored his directions.

At 12:55 a.m., a torpedo from the German submarine U-223 ripped through the Dorchester’s hull, and 27 minutes later, the ship sank. Those 27 minutes were a horror as broken men screamed for help, as lifeboats capsized or drifted away unoccupied, and as those without life jackets faced their fate. It was also a time of moral splendor, for men who proclaimed the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were not hesitant to display the love described in John 15:13: “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.”

Who were these four men? Two were Protestants, one a Catholic, and one a Jew. George Fox was a Methodist who had lied about his age to enter the Army during World War I. Highly decorated for service in France, he reenlisted as a chaplain in 1942, having gone into the ministry between the wars. Clark Poling was a Reformed Church pastor who enlisted despite a warning (that chaplains suffered the highest mortality rate of all military personnel) from his father, himself a chaplain in the First World War. John Washington was a Roman Catholic priest who enlisted shortly after Pearl Harbor. Alexander Goode was a rabbi and the son of a rabbi. In January of 1941, he applied for the chaplaincy but was not accepted. His second try, in 1942, was successful. All four of these men were classmates in chaplain school.

The nation responded in reverent gratitude for their selfless act. Each was awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross. In 1960, Congress voted them a Special Medal for Heroism, given neither before nor after. A commemorative postage stamp was issued in 1948.

In all, 672 men died amidst the wreckage of the Dorchester. What did not die was the testimony of these four men of faith. When Chaplain Fox reentered the service in World War II, he said, “I’ve got to go. I know from experience what our boys are about to face. They need me.” One soldier in particular needed Fox, and Fox was there for him, with his life jacket. Chaplain Poling had asked his father to pray for him: “Not for my safe return, that wouldn’t be fair. Just pray that I shall do my duty . . . never be a coward . . . and have the strength, courage and understanding of men. Just pray that I shall be adequate.”2 Adequate he was, as were his colleagues.

Footnotes:
1
This account is gleaned from the websites, The Chapel of the Four Chaplains, http://www.fourchaplains.org/story.html, and Home of Heroes, http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chaplains.html.

2
C. Douglas Sterner, “The Brotherhood of Soldiers at War,” (Home of Heroes Website, 2004) http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chaplains.html.
article adapted from Kairos Journal

First Baptist Church of Perryville is located one and a half miles east of Rt. 222.