The "These Immortal Chaplains" Story

It was an ordinary day.  Looking at a United States Postage Stamp valued at 3 cents that featured four men in uniforms atop a sinking ship with a title across the top of stamp that read "These IMMORTAL CHAPLAINS ... INTERFAITH IN ACTION."  

The stamp was made in 1948 to honor the chaplains that went down aboard the U.S.A.T. Dorchester in 1943.  The Four Chaplains were four World War II servicemen who died rescuing civilian and military personnel as the American troop ship SS Dorchester sank on February 3, 1943.  The Dorchester was a civilian liner converted for military service in WWII as a War Shipping Administration troop transport.  The ship could carry slightly more than 900 military passengers and crew.  On January 23, 1943 the ship left New York en route to Greenland with a full compliment of troops and crew.

The ship was escorted by Coast Guard Cutters.  During the early morning hours of February 3, the vessel was torpedoed by the German submarine U-223 off of Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.  Both the water and air temperatures were in the 30s.  The Four Chaplains on board were Methodist minister Reverend George L. Fox, Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (PhD), Catholic priest Father John P. Washington and Reformed Church in America minister The Reverend Clark V. Poling.  They originally met at the Army Chaplains School at Harvard University where they prepared for assignments in the European theater, sailing on board Dorchester to report to their new assignments.  

Rev. George Lansing Fox was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania and joined the Army at the age of 17.  After his discharge he returned to Altoona, Pennsylvania where he finished high school and entered Moody Bible Institute in 1923.  He married and became a preacher in the Methodist faith.  He later graduated from Illinois Wesleyan and studied at the Boston University of Theology where he was ordained a Methodist minister on June 10, 1934.  In 1942 he volunteered to serve as an Army chaplain and began active duty on August 8, 1942.  He ended up on the SS Dorchester.

Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (PhD) was born in Brooklyn, New York and was raised in Washington, D.C., attending Eastern High School and Hebrew Union College where he graduated with a B.H. degree in 1937.  He later received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 1940.  He applied to become a Navy chaplain in January 1941, but was not accepted.  After the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 he applied to the Army and became a Chaplain on July 21, 1942.  He was assigned to the 333rd Fighter Squadron and was then transferred to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts.  He was later reunited with Chaplain Fox on the SS Dorchester.

Clark Vandersall Poling was born on August 7, 1910 in Columbus, Ohio.  He studied at Yale University's Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut and graduated with his B.D. degree in 1936.  He was ordained in the Reformed Church in America and served at the First Church of Christ, New London, Connecticut and then as Pastor of the First Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York.  He decided to enter the Army just as his dad had done years before.  He was accepted as a chaplain with the 131st Quartermaster Truck Regiment in 1942.  He too was later reunited with Army Chaplains Goode and Poling.

John Patrick Washington was born in Newark, New Jersey on July 18, 1908.  He studied at Seton Hall in South Orange, New Jersey in preparation for the Catholic priesthood.  He entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, New Jersey in 1931.  Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941 he received his appointment as a chaplain in the United States Army, reporting for active duty on May 9, 1942.  He was named Chief of the Chaplains Reserve Pool in Ft. Benjamin, Indiana and in June 1942 was assigned to the 76th Infantry Division in Ft. George Meade, Maryland.  In November of 1942 he reported to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts and met Chaplains Fox, Goode and Poling at Chaplains School at Harvard.  

Left to right:  Alexander Goode, Clark Poling, George Fox, John Washington

The SS Dorchester had been a 5,649 ton civilian liner, 368 feet long with a 52-foot beam and a single funnel, originally built in 1926 by Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Company.  It was built for freight and passengers.  The ship was converted for military service in WWII as a War shipping Administration troop transport operated by Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamships Lines.  It was originally built for 314 civilians and 90 crew, but could hold slightly more than 900 military and crew.  The Dorchester left New York on January 23, 1943, en route to Greenland carrying four chaplains and 900 others.  The ship's captain was alerted that Coast Guard sonar had detected a submarine.  Because German U-boats were monitoring sea lanes and had attacked and sunk ships earlier during the war, the Captain had the ship's crew on a state of high alert.  His men were ordered to sleep in their clothing and keep their life jackets on.  Most disregarded the orders due to engine heat.  During the early morning hours of February 3, 1943, at 12:55 a.m., the vessel was torpedoed by the German submarine U-223 off Newfoundland in the North Atlantic.  The torpedo knocked out the ships electrical system, leaving it dark.

Panic set in!  Many were trapped below deck.  The four chaplains tried to calm the men and organize them for evacuation and help guide wounded men to safety.  There weren't enough life jackets so the chaplains gave their jackets to the wounded.  They helped the men into the lifeboats, but not all would fit.  They eventually linked arms and, saying prayers and singing hymns, went down with the ship.  Only 230 of the 904 men aboard the ship were rescued.  Life jackets offered little protection from hypothermia which killed most men in the water.  The water temperature was 34 degrees and the air temperature ws 36 degrees.  By the time race ships arrived, hundreds of dead bodies were seen floating on the water, kept up by their life jackets.  On December 19, 1944, all four chaplains were posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross.  Members of Congress later authorized a special medal, the Four Chaplains Medal, approved by an unanimous act of Congress on July 14, 1960.  The medals were presented posthumously to the next of kin of each of the Four Chaplains on January 18, 1961.  February 3, 1998 of that year was established as "Four Chaplains Day" to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the sinking of United States Army transport Dorchester.  My church in Lancaster, St. James Episcopal, observes that day as a Lesser Feast Day on the liturgical calendar.  The chaplains were also honored with a commemorative stamp that was issued in 1948, and was designed by Louis Schwimmer, the head of the Art Department of the New York branch of the U.S. Post Office.  The stamp was very unusual since stamps are not normally issued in honor of someone other than a President of the United States.  The stamp is a 3 cent stamp.  The Chapel of the Four Chaplains was dedicated on February 3, 1951, by President Harry S. Truman to honor these chaplains of different faiths in the Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia.  Although the Chapel was dedicated as an All-Faiths Chapel, no Catholic priest took part in the dedication ceremony, because "canon law forbids joint worship."  The Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation is housed at the former U.S. Naval Chapel located at the former South Philadelphia Navy yard.  And, The Four Chaplains Memorial of York County, PA, a few miles from my home in Lancaster, was incorporated in 2018 after more than 25 years of annual remembrances of the four chaplains.  Rabbi Goode had served a congregation in York prior to his service on the Dorchester.  

And, a stained glass window graces the U.S. Pentagon in Washington, D.C.  Many other sculptures and plaques stand in other locations throughout the United States.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.