HONORING THEIR MEMORY - FOR GOD AND COUNTRY

04 FEBRUARY 2024 – KEARNY, NJ – One of the more emotional moments of the Four Chaplains Mass at St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Kearny each year is when the hymn “No Greater Love” is sung during communion. 

The refrain says that “There is no greater love, says the Lord, than to lay down your life for a friend.”

No words can better explain the story of the Four Chaplains who were killed on 03 February 1943. Each year, their sacrifice is memorialized at a mass held in their honor at St. Stephens, and the American Legion Post 105 Family, along with other Legion families from throughout Essex County, are honored to attend.

The Four Chaplains - Methodist minister Rev. George L. Fox, Reform Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Catholic priest Father John P. Washington, and Reformed Church in America minister Rev. Clark V. Poling – all served as US Army Chaplains in the first year of World War II. In January of 1943, they set sail from New York along with 900 other soldiers headed for Greenland aboard the USAT Dorchester, a troop transport which was part of a larger convoy. On the morning of February 3rd, the ship was torpedoed by a German U-boat, with the ship sinking quickly.

The chaplains were seen handing out life jackets and helping soldiers into the water, eventually giving up their own life jackets to save other men. Survivors of the Dorchester, of which there were only 230 out of 904, recall seeing the four men standing arm-in-arm on the ship as it went down, praying and singing hymns. The chaplains all went down with the Dorchester.

As members of the “Greatest Generation”, they made the ultimate sacrifice by helping save as many of their fellow serviceman as they could - a testament to their commitment as officers and men of faith to serve their fellow man.

To honor that sacrifice, veterans, patriotic organizations, and veteran service organizations from around the area gather at the invitation of Saint Stephen’s to attend a mass in the Chaplain’s honor each year on the first Sunday in February. In a remarkable addition to that, descendants of the Dorchester’s survivors from around the country attend, as well as descendants of the chaplain’s themselves – now 81 years after the vessels sinking.

Saint Stephens has the unique distinction of being a church where one of the Chaplains was actually stationed as a parish priest. Originally from the Roseville section of Newark, Father John P. Washington was assigned to Kearny in 1938, before his enlistment in 1941. Because of his connection to the church, there is a large statue outside of the four men standing and praying on the deck of the Dorchester, along with the Sanctuary of the Four Chaplains residing in the church itself. 

For the fourth year in a row, the American Legion 105 Family has been invited to attend, along with other Essex County American Legions from Nutley (Post 70) and Montclair (Post 251). In addition, members of the county leadership along with County Commander Terence Scantlebury were in attendance, joining other posts and squadrons from Bergen and Hudson counties. The mass, filled with trumpets, organ, and bag pipe music, is somber in nature celebrating these four lives, representing the very best of humanity. Every moment of the hour-and-a-half mass celebrated their lives and the way in which they died. 

In summarizing the mass, Father Joseph Mancini, Pastor of Saint Stephens, noted that the Four Chaplains “…were asked to give it [their lives] up, and did so willingly … with bravery …lovingly … because they knew there was more than this physical existence.” 

It is with that sentiment of hope and faith that the American Legion continues to honor the sacrifice of the Four Chaplains, and of all of our veterans past and present, fulfilling their motto “For God and Country”. 

Rusty Myers, Adjutant

Sons of the American Legion Squadron 105

Belleville, NJ