Heroic chaplains to be honored
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- January
- 22
The Rockland County American Legion will continue a 58-year-old tradition on Sunday, Feb. 1, at the Marian Shrine in West Haverstraw, saluting the sacrifice by four chaplains serving aboard the troop transport USS Dorchester when it was torpedoed and sank during World War II.
The Dorchester was making a dangerous crossing from Newfoundland to Greenland, an area patrolled by German submarines, when it sank with 902 aboard early on Feb. 3, 1942.
Of those, 230 survived, in part because of the calm leadership exhibited by four clergymen of differing faiths, who comforted and ministered to the troops while distributing life vests. When there were no more to give out, the four — a rabbi, a priest and two protestant ministers — took off their vests and gave them to others to spare their lives. Survivors reported seeing the four men, their arms links, slipping beneath the waves with the ship, a converted luxury liner.
Each year since 1951, the chaplains have been remembered with a memorial service in Rockland, conducted by the Rockland County American Legion and this year hosted by the Leo Laders American Legion Post 130 of Thiells. This year’s interfaith observance will begin at 9 a.m. at the Shrine, on Filors Lane.
For information on this year’s ceremony, contact Four Chaplains Memorial Chairman Michael Brophy at 845-238-8161.
To learn more about the chaplains and the sinking of the Dorchester, visit here.
This entry was posted
on Thursday, January 22nd, 2009 at 4:15 pm by Bob Baird.
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