Rotary in History - Service Above Self, Part 2
In the United States we have just celebrated a holiday that is set aside for the remembrance of those who have laid down their lives in the service of their country. Sailors, marines, air force and army foot soldiers; captains, generals, lieutenants and privates; neither branch nor rank comes between them now. All sacrificed and all are remembered this day each year.
War is always dangerous. The danger comes from the air, from land and from under the waves. It comes without warning. It comes whether you are prepared for it or not.
With the attack on Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into World War Two, young men from all over the nation volunteered to join the fight. Some volunteered to act as medics, some as clergy.
When young men of the time became chaplains they typically held the rank of first lieutenant. Four young men from differing backgrounds and different parts of the country first met at Harvard University to attend the Army Chaplains School. There they were prepared for their assignments in Europe.
George Fox had already served in World War One in the ambulance corps. After the war he returned home to Alabama and finished high school (he lied about his age to join the army) and then studied at the Boston University School of Theology where he was ordained a Methodist minister.
Alexander Goode, was born in Brooklyn, the son of a rabbi. He followed in his father’s footsteps, studying for the rabbinate at Hebrew Union College, and later he received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University. He was turned down in his attempt to become a navy chaplain in the summer of 1941, but was accepted as an army chaplain after the Pearl Harbor attack.
Clark Poling was the son of a Baptist minister, who studied at Yale University’s Divinity School. He served as pastor at a church in New London, Connecticut and later at a church in Schenectady, New York. With the entrance of the United States into World War Two, he decided to enlist as an army chaplain – as his father had done in World War One.
John Washington was born and raised in Newark, New Jersey and studied at Seton Hall as he prepared for the priesthood, becoming ordained in 1935. He received his appointment as an army chaplain in May 1942 and joined George, Alexander and Clark at Harvard.
These men, from very different backgrounds, but with a common foundation in their faith, boarded a former civilian cruise, now called the USAT Dorchester, for transport to the European theater. The ship carried 900 troops and its crew and set sail on January 23, 1943 as part of a convoy en route to Greenland.
They did not make it to Greenland.
On February 3rd the Dorchester was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. As panic grew among the men, the chaplains tried to calm as many as they could. They helped men into lifeboats and as lifejackets were handed out, saw that there were not enough to go around, so each of them gave theirs to soldiers without any means to save themselves.
As the ship sank that cold February night, the Four Chaplains as they have become known, linked arms, said prayers and sang hymns and went down with the ship. The lifejackets that many wore did little to protect the men from the frigid waters. Only 230 survived.
Were the Four Chaplains Rotarians? The Rabbi, Alexander Goode was. Did all four know the true meaning of service above self? They most certainly did. Their actions that night in 1943 became an enduring example of extraordinary faith, courage and selflessness.