Four Chaplains Day: February 3

​On the night of February 3, 1943, the U.S. Army transport Dorchester was crossing the North Atlantic when it was struck by a German torpedo. The ship sank in less than thirty minutes, killing 672 of the 902 people aboard. Amid the chaos and freezing darkness, four U.S. Army chaplains chose to remain on deck, helping others reach safety. They were Rev. George L. Fox (Methodist), Rabbi Alexander D. Goode (Reform Judaism), Rev. Clark V. Poling (Dutch Reformed), and Father John P. Washington (Roman Catholic).

Survivors later recalled the chaplains calming frightened soldiers, tending to the wounded, and directing men to lifeboats. When life jackets ran out, the chaplains removed their own and gave them to others. As the Dorchester went down, witnesses reported seeing the four men standing jointly, linked arm in arm, praying together as the ship disappeared beneath the waves. None of the chaplains survived.
 
Accounts of the four chaplains circulated widely during World War II, shaping how the episode was remembered and commemorated in the decades that followed. Each chaplain was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart, and in 1988 the U.S. Congress designated February 3 as Four Chaplains Day, a day of national observance. The annual commemoration preserves this episode as a reminder that different religious traditions have shaped American public life through service, moral responsibility, and action in moments of crisis.
 
Sources:
·       https://fourchaplains.org/the-four-chaplains/
·       https://www.military.com/history/honoring-the-four-chaplains.html
·       https://www.nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/rabbi-alexander-goode-four-chaplains
·       https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains
·       https://armyhistory.org/no-greater-glory-the-four-chaplains-and-the-sinking-of-the-usat-dorchester/
·       The Four Chaplains: Sacrifice at Sea, TV movie, 2004 https://www.youtube.com/watchv=8ewJp8HhYzA