American Minute with Bill Federer
Sinking of the USAT Dorchester
& Four Chaplains Day
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On the frigid night of FEBRUARY 3, 1943, the overcrowded Allied ship
U.S.A.T. Dorchester,
carrying 902 servicemen, plowed through the dark waters near Greenland.
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At 1:00am, a Nazi submarine fired a torpedo into the transport's flank, killing many in the explosion and trapping others below deck.
It sank in 27 minutes.
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The two escort ships, Coast Guard cutters
Comanche
and
Escanaba,
were able to rescue only 231 survivors.
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In the chaos of fire, smoke, oil and ammonia, four chaplains calmed sailors and distributed life jackets:
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Lt. George L. Fox, Methodist;
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Lt. Clark V. Poling, Dutch Reformed;
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Lt. John P. Washington, Roman Catholic; and
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Lt. Alexander D. Goode, Jewish.
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When there were no more life jackets, the four chaplains ripped off their own and put them on four young men.
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As the ship went down, survivors floating in rafts could see the four chaplains linking arms and bracing themselves on the slanting deck.
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They bowed their heads in prayer as they sank to their icy deaths.
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Survivor Grady Clark wrote:
"As I swam away from the ship, I looked back.
The flares had lighted everything. The bow came up high and she slid under.
The last thing I saw, the
Four Chaplains
were up there praying for the safety of the men. They had done everything they could. I did not see them again.
They themselves did not have a chance without their life jackets."
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In 1998, Congress honored them by declaring February 3rd
"Four Chaplains Day.
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President Franklin D. Roosevelt
acknowledged
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews
working together for liberty in his address at Madison Square Garden, October 28, 1940:
"Your government is working ... with representatives of
Catholic, Protestant,
and
Jewish faiths.
Without these three, all three of them ... things would not be as ... easy."
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FDR
stated January 31, 1938:
"There has been definite progress towards a spiritual reawakening ... I receive evidences of this from all our
Protestant Churches;
I get it from
Catholic priests
and from
Jewish rabbis
as well."
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FDR
stated December 6, 1933:
"Government guarantees to the
churches
--
Gentile and Jewish
-- the right to worship God in their own way."
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In a Radio Address, November 4, 1940,
FDR
stated:
"Democracy is the birthright of
every citizen,
the
white
and the
colored;
the
Protestant,
the
Catholic,
the
Jew."
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On February 3, 1951,
President Harry S. Truman
dedicated the
Chapel of the Four Chaplains,
currently located at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard.
Truman
said:
"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 goodwill."
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In 1984, the
Chapel of the Four Chaplains
gave an award recognizing the
military chaplain team,
made up of a
Protestant minister,
a
Catholic priest,
and a
Jewish rabbi,
who were present at the
1983 Beirut Bombing
where
fundamental Muslim terrorists blew up the U.S. Marine barracks, killing 241 U.S. Marines.
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President Ronald Reagan
memorialized them in a speech at the Baptist Annual Convention, April 13, 1984:
"On that October day when
a terrorist truck bomb took the lives of 241 marines, soldiers, and sailors
at the airport in
Beirut,
one of the first to reach the tragic scene was
a chaplain,
the
chaplain
of our
6th Fleet, Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff ...
He said, 'Screams of those injured or trapped were barely audible at first, as our minds struggled to grapple with the reality before us - a massive four-story building, reduced to a pile of rubble; dust mixing with smoke and fire, obscuring our view of the little that was left ...
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... Trying to pull and carry those whose injuries appeared less dangerous in an immediate sense than the approaching fire or the smothering smoke - my kippa was lost. (That is the little headgear that is worn by rabbis.)
The last I remember it, I'd used it to mop someone's brow.
Father Pucciarelli, the Catholic chaplain,
cut a circle out of his cap - a piece of camouflaged cloth which would become my temporary head-covering. Somehow he wanted those marines to know not just that we were chaplains, but that he was a
Christian
and that I was
Jewish ..."
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Reagan
continued quoting
Chaplain Rabbi Resnicoff:
"The words from the prophet Malachi kept recurring to me - words he'd uttered some 2,500 years ago as he had looked around at fighting and cruelty and pain.
'Have we not all one Father?
' he had asked.
'Has not one God created us all?' ...
To understand the role of the
chaplain - Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant
- is to understand that we try to remind others, and perhaps ourselves as well, to cling to our humanity even in the worst of times ...
We bring with us the truth that faith not only reminds us of the holy in Heaven, but also of the holiness we can create here on Earth ...
We have within us the power to reflect as God's creatures the highest values of our Creator. As God is forgiving and - merciful, so can we be.'"
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Reagan stated January 31, 1983:
“Let us come together,
Christians and Jews,
let us pray together ...
All of us, as
Protestants, Catholics, and Jews,
have a special responsibility to remember our fellow believers who are being persecuted in other lands. We're all children of Abraham. We're children of the same God."
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On February 7, 1954,
President Dwight Eisenhower
spoke from the White House for 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 ..."
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Eisenhower
continued:
"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.'"
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Another inspiring story of a Christian risking his life to save soldiers was combat medic
Desmond Doss,
as portrayed in the award-winning film
Hacksaw Ridge
(2016).
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Yet another inspiring story was that of
Chaplain William Thomas Cummings,
who served with the
U.S. Army
in the
Philippines
during
World War II.
He was captured by the Japanese and died when his unmarked prisoner ship was sunk sailing to Japan on January 18, 1945.
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Earlier, while serving with the American troops during the
Battle of Bataan,
January 7 to April 9, 1942,
Chaplain Father Cummings
gave a stirring field sermon in which he declared:
"There are no atheists in the foxholes."
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Eisenhower
repeated these words in his address February 7, 1954:
"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.
They know that in time of test and trial,
we instinctively turn to God for new courage and peace of mind.
All the history of America bears witness to this truth ...
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."
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American Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.
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Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924
wjfederer@gmail.com
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