What) On January 23, 1943, 32-year-old Rabbi Alexander Goode boarded the USAT Dorchester, an 18-year-old coastal steamer that had been converted to a troop transport.  The Dorchester sailed north from New York towards Saint John's, Newfoundland.   During the voyage, Rabbi Goode and his friend from chaplains school, the Rev. George Lansing Fox, 43, met and befriended two other chaplains: the Rev. Clark Vandersall Poling, 31, and Father John Patrick Washington, 33.

    On February 1, 1943, the Dorchester docked in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  This gave the soldiers aboard the opportunity to mail letters to loved ones assuring them that they were safe.  The next day, the Dorchester left Newfoundland and lumbered through the cold, unfriendly seas on the way to Greenland.  With thoughts of the enemy ever present, the four chaplains tried to have a private word with everyone aboard.

    At 12:55 am on February 3, 1943, a torpedo from U-boat U-223 slammed into the starboard side of the Dorchester below the water line.  No sirens had warned of the attack and hundreds of shocked and panicked men quickly emerged from below deck.  The ship rapidly listed to starboard rendering twelve of the fourteen lifeboats inaccessible.  Despairing soldiers called out for their mothers.  All the while, the chaplains worked to calm the men and locate life jackets in the deck's storage areas.  A few minutes before the Dorchester would sink, all the life jackets had been distributed yet dozens of men were without one.

    At that moment, Rabbi Goode, Rev. Fox, Rev. Poling and Father Washington performed an extraordinary act of heroism.  All four men removed their life jackets and handed them to others.  It will never be known whether the chaplains had made the decision beforehand or if they acted spontaneously.  One of the chaplains was overheard saying to a young soldier without a life jacket, "Here, take mine.  I won't need it.  I'm staying."  Petty Officer John J. Mahoney remembers that he tried to go below deck to get his gloves but was stopped by Rabbi Goode who said, "Take mine, I have two pairs."  It occurred to Mahoney only later that Chaplain Goode didn't really have a second pair.  The chaplains remained calm, offering words of solace and prayer to the frightened and wounded men trapped aboard the sinking ship.  Their demeanor, noted by many of the survivors, restrained some of the panic and probably contributed to the survival of additional men.

    Only 227 of the 902 Americans on board the Dorchester survived.  One of them was Private William B. Bednar who floated in the freezing waters surrounded by the bodies of his comrades.  As he later recalled, "I could hear men crying, pleading and praying.  I could also hear the chaplains preaching courage.  Their voices were the only thing that kept me going."  Another survivor, John Ladd, witnessed the four chaplains standing arm in arm, praying aloud and singing hymns with others as the ship disappeared beneath the waves.  He would later say, "It was the finest thing I have seen or hope to see this side of heaven." (1)

    The inspiring chaplains are remembered in other places in stained glass portraits and memorials. In Bottineau they are memorialized in a small, four-columned cement arch, shading an upright cement slab to which is bolted a bronze plaque depicting the Dorchester going down. Above the doomed ship, in the cloud of steam and smoke exploding out of it, the giant faces of the chaplains can be seen, looking stern and saintly. Above their heads are the words: "For God And Country." (2)

    Where) At the corner of 4th Street West and Sinclair Street

    Why) I'll admit that I get a little teary eyed whenever I read that passage.  I'll also admit that I have read it more than once.