The Immortal Four

Feb. 3 is “Four Chaplains Day” in America by the unanimous resolution of the U.S. Congress in 1988 – so Americans might remember, honor and be inspired by the example of the four military chaplains who sacrificed their lives in World War II “so that others might live.” On Feb. 3, 2016, the 73rd anniversary of their deaths, American veterans’ organizations all across the country held annual ceremonies honoring “The Immortal Four Chaplains.”

But will Americans generally honor and remember the Four Chaplains? Will the example of their lives be taught to our American children in their schools? Do most Americans, especially new Americans, the young and immigrants, even know who the Four Chaplains are and what they did?

“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends,” instructs St. John in the Bible. The Immortal Four Chaplains lived and embodied that truth: On Feb. 3, 1943, the Dorchester, a converted luxury cruise ship, was transporting Army troops to Greenland in World War II, 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. The blast ripped a hole in the ship from below the waterline to the top deck. The engine room was instantly flooded. Crewmen not scalded to death by steam escaping from broken pipes and the ship’s boiler drowned. Hundreds of troops in the flooded lower compartments drowned, or washed out to the frigid waters, where most would die.

In less than a minute, the Dorchester listed on a 30-degree angle. Troops on deck searched for life jackets in panic, clung to rails and other handholds, saw overloaded lifeboats overturn in the turgid water, or leaped overboard as a last desperate hope for life. Many with life jackets drowned when the life preservers became water-logged. 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 and souls. 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 one of the most remarkable acts of heroism, courage, faith and love in American, and human, history 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.

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. Veterans organizations have called on Congress to make an exception and award the Medal of Honor to the Four Chaplains.

At the dedication of the Chapel of the Four Chaplains in 1951, then-President Harry 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.”