Four Chaplains Day

On the frigid night of February 3, 1943, the Allied ship Dorchester plowed through the waters near Greenland.  At 1:00am, a Nazi submarine fired a torpedo into its flank, killing many in the explosion and trapping others below deck.  In the ensuing chaos, four chaplains: a priest, a rabbi and two protestant ministers; distributed life jackets. When there were none left, the four chaplains ripped off their own jackets and put them on four young men.  Standing embraced on the slanting deck, the chaplains bowed their heads in prayer as they sank to their icy deaths.  Congress honored them by declaring February 3, as “Four Chaplains Day.”     

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