Forgotten Heroism
By Four Walls
@FourWalls (71340)
United States
February 4, 2025 11:28am CST
Yesterday, February 3, is known as “The Day the Music Died,” the plane crash that killed Buddy Holly, JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson, and Ritchie Valens in 1959. February 3 is also the anniversary of a forgotten act of heroism.
On February 3, 1943, the SS Dorchester, a converted passenger ship transporting 900 soldiers and four clergymen, was torpedoed by a Nazi U-boat. Only 97 survived. It was the worst loss of a U.S. transport ship in World War II history.
The torpedo hit right at the wrong place, taking out the electricity on the ship. In the middle of the night, in the dark, in icy waters near Greenland, the soldiers fumbled their way through the dark. Up on the top deck, the chaplains — a rabbi, a priest, and two Protestant ministers — donned life vests and helped guide the scared, cold, and disoriented soldiers to the lifeboats, passing out life jackets as they did so.
The supply of life vests quickly depleted, so the chaplains removed their life jackets and gave them to four more soldiers. Rabbi Alexander B. Goode, Methodist minister George Fox, Reformed minister Clark Poling, and Father John Washington then went down with the ship. A survivor said that the last thing he saw before the ship sank was the four chaplains, linked arm in arm, singing a hymn.
Congress declared February 3 “Four Chaplains Day,” and in 1960 created a special medal just for them (given that, as non-combatants, they weren’t eligible for the Medal of Honor).
The pictured memorial is in Riverview Park in Sebastian, Florida, one of many places throughout America that remembers and honors these four men’s service to God.
PHOTO:
The Four Chaplains Memorial, Riverview Park, Sebastian, Florida
13 people like this
9 responses
@marguicha (224944)
• Chile
4 Feb
IF all believers were like them, the world would be a better place. Your post made me cry.
3 people like this
@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
4 Feb
I’m sorry you cried but I certainly understand why.
2 people like this
@marguicha (224944)
• Chile
5 Feb
@FourWalls This is the kind of tears that include pride in life
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
5 Feb
@marguicha — the “good cry.” Yes. Some people really do live their faith.
1 person likes this

@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
4 Feb
And we have no clue how many times a similar act was performed in wars.
3 people like this
@snowy22315 (185072)
• United States
4 Feb
Sometimes chaplains can be heroes too.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (82414)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
4 Feb
Thank you for the information, I did not know about this,
2 people like this
@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
4 Feb
There are so many great stories like this and so many of them are forgotten. Glad I could tell the story.
1 person likes this
@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
4 Feb
It’s an amazing story and one I’m sorry hasn’t been repeated over the decades. I just found out about this a couple of months ago in one of my rabbit holes.
2 people like this
@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
7 Feb
What’s sadder is that I had never heard of this until I found it in a rabbit hole online a few months ago! You’d think this would be widely remembered and commemorated in America.
1 person likes this
@JudyEv (345995)
• Rockingham, Australia
8 Feb
@FourWalls Some things are very quickly forgotten, more's the pity.
1 person likes this

@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
5 Feb
Congress established a “Four Chaplains Medal” in their honor (since they weren’t eligible for the Medal of Honor). In 65 years, they are the only four recipients.
1 person likes this

@FourWalls (71340)
• United States
5 Feb
I had never heard it until a couple of months ago!
1 person likes this
