The American Legion Family of Essex County, N.J. – alongside that of Hudson and Bergen County – attended the annual Four Chaplains Mass at St. Stephen's Roman Catholic Church in Kearny on Sunday, Feb. 2.
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 U.S. Army chaplains in the first year of World War II. In January 1943, they set sail from New York along with 900 other soldiers headed for Greenland aboard USAT Dorchester, a troop transport that was part of a larger convoy. On the morning of Feb. 3, 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 jackets to save other men. Survivors, 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 Dorchester.
To honor that sacrifice, veterans, patriotic organizations and veteran service organizations from around the area gather at the invitation of St. 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 Dorchester’s survivors from around the country attend, as well as descendants of the chaplains themselves – now 82 years after the vessel's sinking.
“Four men, three faiths, one God. It was their underlying strength to do God's work on that fateful February morning in 1943 that remains to this day the reason I attend this very memorable Mass annually”, wrote Post 105 Legionnaire Ed Saegers. “As a proud veteran, it is an honor to be a small part of this meaningful celebration.”
St. Stephen's 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, 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 Dorchester, along with the Sanctuary of the Four Chaplains residing in the church itself.
