On the frigid night of 3 February
1943, the fully laden Allied ship USAT Dorchester, carrying 902 servicemen,
plowed through the dark waters near Greenland.
At 0100, a National Socialist
submarine fired a torpedo into the transport's flank, killing many in the
explosion and trapping others below deck.
It sank in 27 minutes. The
water temperature was 28°F, time of useful consciousness was measured in
seconds, not minutes. Everyone on
board knew that.
The two escort ships, Coast
Guard cutters Comanche & Escanaba, were able to rescue only 231 survivors.
Navy Chaplain Lieutenants Fox, Poling, Goode and
Washington
In the chaos of fire, smoke, oil
and ammonia, four chaplains calmed the sailors and distributed lifejackets:
Lt. George L.
Fox, Methodist;
Lt. Clark V.
Poling, Dutch Reformed;
Lt. John P. Washington,
Roman Catholic;
Lt. Alexander
D. Goode, Jewish.
When there were no more
lifejackets, the four chaplains ripped off their own lifejackets and put them
on four young men.
As the ship went down, survivors
floating in rafts could see the four chaplains linking arms and bracing
themselves on the slanting deck.
They bowed their heads in prayer as they sank to their icy deaths.
Congress honored them by
declaring this "Four Chaplains Day."
On 7 February 1954, President
Dwight Eisenhower spoke from the White House in support of the American Legion
Back-to-God Program:
"
And we remember that, only a
decade ago, aboard the transport Dorchester, four chaplains of four faiths
together willingly sacrificed their lives so that four others might live.
In
the three centuries that separate the Pilgrims of the Mayflower from the
chaplains of the Dorchester, America's freedom, her courage, her strength, and
her progress have had their foundation in faith.
Today as then, there is need for
positive acts of renewed recognition that faith is our surest strength, our
greatest resource.
This “Back to God” movement is such a positive
act...
Whatever our individual church, whatever our personal creed, our common
faith in God is a common bond among us...
Together we thank the Power that has
made and preserved us a nation. By the millions, we speak prayers, we sing
hymns and no matter what their words may be, their spirit is the same-”In God
is Our Trust. As a former soldier,
I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our
awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth-that
there are no atheists in the foxholes."
Quite a distance from that time
and place to “Whatever we once were, we are no longer a Christian nation,” BH
Obama.
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