District Council 10 Leads Four Chaplains Day Church Service

................. Four Chaplains Day church service:

.....................By Bob Lessard, Historian Post 64

.......Members of the Tenth District Council of Massachusetts American Legion were welcomed by Pastor Bryan Souza as they attended the observation of Four Chaplains Day this past Sunday at the Central United Methodist Church in Middleborough.

.......Tenth District Council Commander Dick McMahon of West Bridgewater led the Legion contingent. The Council is comprised of Posts under its jurisdiction in Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket counties. Representing the American Legion Department of Massachusetts was State Commander Ken Starks.

......Presented at the church service was the history of the heroic self-sacrificing actions of Four Army Chaplains after the sinking of the USAT Dorchester during World War Two some seventy-four years ago.

......The chaplains, who all held the rank of Lieutenant, were Methodist Reverend George Lansing Fox, Jewish Rabbi Alexander David Goode, Catholic Priest John Patrick Washington and Dutch Reformer Reverend Clark Vandersall Poling.

......All four attended Chaplains School at Harvard. They later met prior to their departure for Europe, while stationed temporarily at Camp Myles Standish in Taunton.

......The four chaplains were sailing on the Dorchester an Army troop transport ship carrying 902 men, when the vessel was torpedoed off Greenland by a German submarine on February 3, 1943.

......They gave their lives to save others during the sinking of the Dorchester. They helped others board lifeboats and passed out life jackets until there no more available. They then gave up their own life jackets when the supply ran out. They were among the 672 men who lost their lives in the sinking.

......All four chaplains were posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, The Purple Heart and The Chaplain’s Medal of Heroism. In 1988, February 3rd was designated “Four Chaplains Day” by a Congressional resolution.

......Among those, who were welcomed at Sunday’s church service, were members of Middleborough’s Simeon L. Nickerson Post 64 American Legion. Also in attendance were Cub Scouts of Pack 64 and Boy Scout leaders of Troop 64. Both the Cub Pack and Boy Scout Troop are sponsored by Post 64.