Hero Card 115, Card Pack 10
Photo credit: U.S. Army, via Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation (digitally restored)

Hometown: Newark, NJ
Branch: U.S. Army
Unit: Army Chaplain Corps
Military Honors: Distinguished Service Cross, Chaplain’s Medal for Heroism, Purple Heart
Date of Sacrifice: February 3, 1943 - Labrador Sea, near Greenland
Age: 34
Conflict: World War II, 1939-1945

John Patrick Washington was the oldest of seven children, born on July 18, 1908, in Newark, New Jersey. His parents, Frank and Mary Washington, were poor Irish Catholic immigrants, and John grew up in rough neighborhoods.

John attended St. Rose of Lima Catholic Elementary School in Newark, and had a newspaper route to provide money to his large family. He loved music and sang in the church choir.

 As early as the seventh grade, John knew that he wanted to be a priest. He served as an altar boy, and attended Seton Hall Preparatory School in South Orange, New Jersey in preparation for the priesthood.

He graduated from Seton Hall University with an A.B. degree in 1931 and was accepted to the Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, New Jersey. John excelled at the Seminary, was elected prefect of his class, and was ordained a priest on June 15, 1935.

Father Washington’s first parish was St. Genevieve’s in Elizabeth, New Jersey, followed by a short stint at St. Venantius in Orange, New Jersey. In 1938 he was assigned to St. Stephen’s, in Arlington, New Jersey.

Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Father Washington received an appointment as an Army Chaplain, beginning active duty on May 9, 1942. He served as Chief of the Chaplains Reserve Pool at Fort Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. A month later, he was assigned to the 76th Infantry Division at Fort George Meade, Maryland. 

In late 1942, Washington was assigned to the U.S. Army Chaplain School at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He and three classmates would soon become known to the nation as the “Four Chaplains” because of an act of uncommon selflessness and courage.

[NOTE: The following account of events aboard the Dorchester is repeated for each of the Four Chaplains]

German U-boat Attack

On January 23, 1943, the USAT (United States Army Transport) Dorchester left New York harbor, sailing through the North Atlantic into the Labrador Sea. Her destination was the southern tip of Greenland—where the U.S. Army had constructed Narsarsuaq Air Base in 1941.

The base housed as many as 4,000 servicemen who were rotated out on a regular basis due to the harsh weather of Greenland. Narsarsuaq was one link in the Allies’ North Atlantic Ferry Route, in which American aircraft were sent to Europe during World War II.

Disrupting this flow of military assets became a high priority for the Germans. Due to frequent encounters with German U-boat submarines, the dangerous trip to Greenland aboard slow troop transport ships kept American service members on edge until they arrived safely on shore.

Dorchester was part of a convoy, and carried 902 people—soldiers, merchant seamen, and civilian workers. At 12:55 a.m. on the night of February 3, 1943, just 150 miles from their destination, German U-boat U-223 fired three torpedoes at the Dorchester. One exploded into her starboard side. A hundred men were killed instantly.

Dorchester’s electrical systems were destroyed, and she was rapidly taking on water. Panic swept the dying vessel, those not trapped below decks scrambled topside—stunned from the explosion, the frigid darkness, and the blasting arctic winds.

Hans J. Danielsen, the ship’s captain, gave the order to abandon ship. Dorchester would slip beneath the waves of the Atlantic’s icy waters within 20 minutes.

The “Four Chaplains”

Four U.S Army chaplains—all classmates at Harvard—were aboard Dorchester that fateful night: Methodist minister George L. Fox, Rabbi Alexander D. Goode, Dutch Reformed pastor Clark V. Poling, and Catholic priest John P. Washington.

According to the U.S. Army’s account:

Once topside, the chaplains opened a storage locker and began distributing life jackets. It was then that Engineer Grady Clark witnessed an astonishing sight. When there were no more lifejackets in the storage room, the chaplains simultaneously removed theirs and gave them to four frightened young men.

As the ship went down, survivors in nearby rafts could see the four chaplains—arms linked and braced against the slanting deck. Their voices could also be heard offering prayers and singing hymns.

Only 230 of the 902 men aboard Dorchester survived. There weren’t enough life rafts. In the chaos, darkness, and stormy sea, only two of the 14 lifeboats were successfully used in abandoning ship.

Each of the Four Chaplains was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross for their bravery. John P. Washington’s citation reads:

The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pride in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross (Posthumously) to First Lieutenant (Chaplain) John P. Washington (ASN: 0-463529), United States Army, for extraordinary heroism in connection with military operations against an enemy of the United States. On the night of 3 February 1943, the U.S.A.T. Dorchester, a loaded troop transport, was torpedoed without warning by an enemy submarine in the North Atlantic and began to sink rapidly. In the resulting confusion and darkness some men found themselves without life jackets and others became helpless through fear and the dread of plunging into the freezing water. Chaplain Poling with three fellow Chaplains, moved about the deck, heroically and calmly, encouraging the men and assisting them to abandon ship. After the available supply of life jackets was exhausted they gave up their own and remained aboard ship and went down with it, offering words of encouragement and prayers to the last. Chaplain Washington’s great self-sacrifice, personal bravery and zealous devotion to duty exemplifies the highest traditions of the military forces of the United States and reflect great credit upon himself, the Chaplains Corps, and the United States Army.

Tributes

Numerous tributes, memorials, chapels, bridges, magazine articles, and books preserve the story of the Four Chaplains. In 1948, a U.S. postage stamp was issued commemorating their courage. A stained-glass window depicting the four heroes was installed on the third floor, in the A-ring of the Pentagon. The U.S. Congress created a Four Chaplains Medal, which was presented to the chaplains’ families by Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker on January 18, 1961 at Fort Myer, Virginia. By an Act of Congress, February 3 has been designated as Four Chaplains Day.