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REMEMBERING THE FOUR CHAPLAINS -- February 3rd
is
"Four Chaplains Day." We honor their service
and bravery.
They gave their life jackets so others could
live.
Story here...
http://www.recordgazette.net/articles/
2007/02/01/news/10news.txt
Story below:
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Honoring the four chaplains
By Rees Lloyd
For the Record Gazette
Feb. 3 is “Four Chaplains Day” in America by the unanimous resolution of
the U.S. Congress in 1988.
Who are they, and why do we honor them? Do we Americans, generally,
know, and transmit to our young, the story of the Four Chaplains and
their heroism in World War II; their willing, knowing, and loving
ultimate sacrifice of their lives in service to God and country so “that
others may live;” the lesson of their lives?
On February 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was
transporting Army troops to Greenland, escorted by three Coast Guard
Cutters and accompanied by two slow moving freighters.
On board were some 900 troops, and four chaplains, of diverse religions
and backgrounds, but of a common faith and commitment to serve God,
country, and all the troops, regardless of their religious beliefs, or
non-belief. The four Chaplains are:
Rev. George Fox (Methodist); Father John Washington (Roman Catholic);
Jewish Rabbi Alexander Goode; and Rev. Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed).
At approximately 12:55 a.m., in the dead of a freezing night, the
Dorchester was hit by a torpedo fired by German U-boat 233 in an area so
infested with German submarines it was known as “Torpedo Junction.”
The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top
deck.
The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen, who were not scalded to
death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship's boiler, were
drowned.
Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments were drowned, or
washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.
In less than a minute, the Dorchester lost way, and listed on a
30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic,
clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded life boats overturn
in the turgid water, leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life.
Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became
waterlogged.
Of the 900 troops and crew on board, two-thirds would ultimately die;
most of those who survived, had lifelong infirmities and pain from their
time in the icy waters.
Dorchester survivors told of the wild pandemonium on board when it was
hit and began sinking. Many men had not slept in their clothes and life
vests as ordered because of the heat in the crowded quarters below.
There was panic, fear, terror; death was no abstraction but real,
immediate, seemingly inescapable.
The four Chaplains acted together to try bring some order to the chaos,
to calm the panic of the troops, to alleviate their fear and terror, to
pray with and for them, to help save their lives.
The Chaplains passed out life jackets, helping those too panicked to put
them on correctly, until the awful moment arrived when there were no
more life jackets to be given out.
It was then that a most remarkable act of heroism, courage, faith, and
love took place:
Each of the four Chaplains took off his life jacket, and, knowing that
act made death certain, put his life jacket on a soldier who didn't have
one, refusing to listen to any protest that they should not make such a
sacrifice.
They continued to help the troops until the last moment.
Then, as the ship sank into the raging sea, the four Chaplains linked
hands and arms, and could be seen and heard by the survivors praying
together, even singing hymns, joined together in faith, love, and unity,
as they sacrificed their lives so “that others might live.”
The few survivors testified to the selfless act of the four Chaplains:
“The ship started sinking and 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. I think their names should be on the list of ‘The Greatest
Heroes' of this war,” testified Grady L. Clark.
“I saw all four chaplains take off their life belts and give them to
soldiers who had none. The last I saw of them they were still praying,
talking, and preaching to the soldiers,” attested survivor Thomas W.
Myers Jr.
“It is impressed clearly in my mind that these chaplains demonstrated
unsurpassed courage and heroism when they willingly gave their life
belts to four enlisted men, who, because of the utter confusion and
disorder brought about by the torpedoing, had become hysterical. They
helped save the lives of many of the troops,” testified John F. Garey.
These testimonies, taken from author Dan Kurzman's valuable book “No
Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the
Dorchester in World War II,” are but some of the sworn statements of
grateful survivors upon which Congress awarded the Four Chaplains an
unprecedented “Congressional Medal of Valor” in 1961.
Earlier, in 1944, they were awarded Purple Hearts and the Distinguished
Service Cross. They did not receive the Medal of Honor because of
restrictions limiting that medal to combatants. In 2004, delegates to
The American Legion National Convention representing 2.7-million wartime
veterans, voted to support making an exception and awarding the Medal of
Honor to the Four Chaplains.
The lesson of their lives is as inspiring as is the lesson of their
ultimate sacrifice. Information is available from a number of sources,
principally by the Immortal Chaplains Foundation, and the affiliated
Chapel of the Four Chaplains, which awards the Immortal Chaplains Prize
for Humanity, and whose logo is: “That others may live.” (
www.immortalchaplains.org
; The Immortal Chaplains Foundation, Hamline University, Box48, St.
Paul, MN 55104)
At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951,
then-President Harry S. Truman said their sacrifice reflected the fact
that “the unity of our country is a unity under God.”
“This interfaith shrine will stand through long generations to teach
Americans that as men can die heroically as brothers so should they live
together in mutual faith and good will,” President Truman said.
Ben Epstein, a Jewish survivor who often spoke to audiences about the
Four Chaplains, was quoted by author Kurzman as describing the meaning
of their sacrifice by putting a question to himself, and, thereby, to
all other Americans:
“I ask myself, could I do it? Take my life preserver and give it to
someone else? Absolutely not. I don't think I could do it. I didn't do
it. And I ask you in the audience how many of you could do it? And I
don't want an answer. That's why I say their bravery; their heroism is
beyond belief. That is one of the reasons why we must tell the world
what these people did.”
On this Feb. 3, Four Chaplains Day 2007, what the Four Chaplains did,
and the lesson of their lives, is being told in many areas, including
intergenerationally here in the San Gorgonio Pass as President Truman
urged: Banning School Superintendent Kathy MacNamara told the Record
Gazette she is including information on Four Chaplains Day in her daily
bulletin to all schools in the District. Similarly, an e-mail on Four
Chaplains Day has been sent to all Beaumont Schools by the
Administration.
The American Legion has been conducting annual Four Chaplains
remembrances for almost one-half a century, publishes material, and has
produced a video, “The American Legion Remembers the Four Chaplains,”
all of which are available through its Chaplains Program. (
Acy@legion.org ; The American
Legion, Attn: Chaplains Program, PO Box 1055, Indianapolis, IN 46206
(317-630-1212).
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Larry Scott --
