COURAGE WITHOUT FANFARE
Courage takes many forms.
We celebrate heroism with tickertape
parades and stone monuments
and record courageous exploits on
film.
But there is also a quiet courage, born of
necessity and practiced without fanfare.
Such was the courage of four good men
aboard
the troop ship S.S. Dorchester on
February 3, 1943.
Because of one
day in their lives.. their last day ……
Lts. Fox
(Methodist), Goode (Jewish), Washington (Catholic)
and Poling (Dutch
Reformed) are linked forever together
and known
simply as the Four IMMORTAL
Chaplains.
This was the
second war for George Fox.
During WWI, before he was 18, he signed on
for ambulance duty
and was wounded two days before armistice
was declared.
He subsequently received the Silver Star,
a Purple Heart
and the Croix de Guerre of France.
Several years later, Fox enrolled in the
Bible Institute of Chicago to study
for the ministry, married, and upon
completion of his studies,
returned with his wife to Vermont, where
his two children were born.
Ordained as a Methodist minister at age
34, he began preaching in
several small Vermont villages until the
attack on Pearl Harbor,
when he joined the Corps of Chaplains and
took the first step
toward his destiny aboard the Dorchester.
Alex Goode, like his father and grandfather,
was a rabbi, and a fervent patriot. At the outbreak of World War II,
he said farewell to his wife and the
members of his
temple congregation in York, Pa., enlisted
in the Corps of Chaplains,
and set out with the others for overseas
duty aboard the Dorchester.
Clark Poling’s family shared a tradition of religious
service dating back
seven generations. Clark first studied
law, but later found his true calling
and entered Yale Divinity School. After his ordination in 1938, Poling became
the minister for the First Dutch reformed Church in Schenectady,
N.Y.
As the war began, he and his wife were
awaiting the birth of their second child.
Shortly before embarking on the S.S. Dorchester,
he almost omnisciently remarked to his
family,
“Do not pray for my safe return, but that
I do my duty.”
John Washington was the oldest of seven children
born to Irish Catholic immigrants in
Newark, N.J.,
He believed that God had a special need for
him after
surviving a near-fatal childhood
illness.
In 1937, he became a Catholic priest and
was assigned to
St. Stephen’s parish in Arlington, N.J.
Five years later, the war beckoned Father
Washington and
he, too, stepped aboard the Dorchester.
As the Dorchester, a U.S.
Army troopship, made its way through the freezing waters of the North Atlantic,
the four chaplains went about their work, counseling and praying with the 904
men on board. As fearful rumors swept
the ship, compounded by seasickness, stifling heat, stale air and tightly
crowed quarters, the chaplains were often needed.
On January 30, the two merchants
ships and three Coast Guard cutters in the Dorchester’s convoy entered a
stretch of water off Newfoundland called Torpedo Junction, where many ships had
been sunk by German U-boats. There were
frequent drills and alerts as the cutter made routine sweeps in search of enemy
submarines. Amid mounting anxiety, the
chaplains resorted to laughter and music to help dispel the fear that prayer
and bible verses could no longer reach.
On Tuesday, February 2, the cutter
detected a submarine, but could not get a fix on the position. By 1 a.m. the next morning (February 3), the
exhausted troops had finally settled down below as the watch changed on deck
and the relieved man headed below to revive his nearly frozen limbs and get a
cup of coffee. There was a faint thud
and the ship shuddered. The German
U-Boat
U-223 had fired
three torpedos’, one of which hit the midsection of the Dorchester.
Ammonia and oil were everywhere in the fast-sinking vessel and upon the
freezing sea.
The Dorchester, now without
power or a radio, listed to starboard.
The convoy sailed on, unaware of the plight of the troopship. Dazed men, half naked and without life
jackets, struggled to the upper deck.
Panic infected the men as overcrowded lifeboats capsized and rafts
drifted off before anyone could use them.
They stood little chance of surviving in the icy blasts which struck
them.
The four Chaplains were among the
first on deck. In the midst of this chaos, the calm action and courage of the
four Army chaplains saved many lives.
They guided wandering, frightened men to lifeboat stations, distributed life
jackets and helped others over the side of the relative safety of the
lifeboats. Survivors remember hearing
their comforting voices raised in prayer.
Others remember them handing life jackets to man after man and, at the
end, giving up their own.
Many remember that agonizing sight
of four men standing in knee-deep waters on the slanting deck, their arms
linked and voices raised in unified prayer. They were the last to be seen by
witnesses, each praying for the care of the men. The stern of the Dorchester
rose high in the water and then suddenly slipped beneath the icy
waters. The men were gone. Of the 904 men who sailed on the Dorchester
that night, 605 were lost. It took approximately 18 minutes from the
explosion for the Dorchester to go down. The Coast Guard Cutter Tampa was able
to escort the other freighters to Greenland. Meanwhile the Cutters Comanche and
Escanaba, disobeying orders to continue the search for the German U-Boat,
stopped to rescue 230 men from the frigid waters that night. Almost 700 died,
making it the third largest loss at sea of its kind for the United States
during World War II.
Survivors would always remember the
courage of the four chaplains. The
world would recognize their valor in 1948, when the Chapel of Four Chaplains
located in Philadelphia was dedicated by President Harry S Truman; and again,
in 1961, when Congress voted to present the Special Medal of Heroism-the only
such medal ever given-posthumously to the four chaplains of the S.S.
Dorchester. They were recognized for their selfless acts of courage,
compassion and faith. According to the First Sergeant on the ship, “They were
always together, they carried their faith together.” They demonstrated
throughout the voyage and in their last moments, interfaith compassion in their
relationships with the men and with each other.
In 1989, The American Legion
Auxiliary resolved that the first Sunday of February would henceforth be
designated “Four Chaplains Sunday” to honor the memory of the four chaplains of
the S.S. Dorchester, and, as such, it is observed by all members with special
programs of recognition.
None of us knows what we are capable of until we are challenged. Each of us hopes that at the moment of confrontation, we will prove worthy. On the first Sunday of February, we honor four brave and godly men who met the ultimate challenge with quiet courage and who never heard the fanfare.
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