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Mostly Cloudy Post 246 honors the Four Chaplains
Members and friends of Baldwin American Legion Post 246 gathered on Feb. 1 for their annual Four Chaplains ceremony.
Local Boy Scouts; the Jones Beach and Fire Island Coast Guard Auxiliary; the Legion Riders, a veterans motorcycle club; Town of Hempstead Clerk Kate Murray and others joined the Legion at its Grand Avenue headquarters for the observance.
This year marked the 80th anniversary of Four Chaplains Day, which is observed on Feb. 3, and celebrates four U.S. Army chaplains and their selfless acts aboard the sinking SS Dorchester, an Army transport ship, with hymns, stories and speeches by legion members.
Post Commander Stu Cohen led the ceremony, and told the story of the four men — Lieutenants George L. Fox, a Methodist chaplain; Alexander D Goode, a Jew; John P. Washington, a Catholic; and Clark V. Poling, of the Reformed Church in America — who were aboard the Dorchester in 1943. A torpedo from a German U-boat torpedo struck the Dorchester broadside on Feb. 3, and the vessel began sinking rapidly. According to the story, the chaplains led the crew in hymns and prayers to keep up their morale. While the crew waited to be rescued by nearby Coast Guard cutters, the chaplains gave away their gloves, and then their life vests, to scrambling crewman.
According to some reports, survivors of the Dorchester heard the chaplains praying as the ship sank. All four men died. Only 230 of the 904 men aboard the ship were rescued.
As part of his account, Cohen shared a brief PowerPoint presentation projected on the wall behind him. The title slide featured a tombstone and a caption reading, “Does anyone recognize this young man?” Cohen explained that the tombstone was that of Charles Walter David Jr., a U.S. Coast Guard steward’s mate first class who died in 1943.
David, Cohen said, who is buried in Long Island National Cemetery in Farmingdale, was one of the lesser-known heroes of the sinking of the Dorchester. He was a cook on board the Coast Guard cutter Comanche, a large Black man who had joined the Coast Guard in 1941 after having difficulty finding stable employment at home. David, Cohen recounted, was one of the few men aboard the Comanche who dived overboard into the frigid Atlantic to help rescue members of the Dorchester crew.
“Nowadays, in rescue operations, we have all these fancy suits to account for the temperature of the water,” Cohen said. “The truth is he was in his regular uniform, and was probably in a T-shirt.”
Cohen said David saved several men from the sinking Dorchester, including its executive officer, Lt. Langford Anderson — who survived and went on to tell the story of David’s actions. Although the story of the Dorchester often focuses on the story of the chaplains, Cohen said, David, too, deserves to be celebrated for his heroic actions.
Members of the legion took part in a symbolic candle lighting, which involved a table with four chairs and four candles. Cohen called up four legion members, who represented the chaplains. He introduced each of them, and then, one by one, they donned a life vest and were escorted to a chair at the table. The candles were lit as they sat down.
Then, in a final flag-folding ceremony, members of the state’s 11th Regiment Volunteers — a veterans group dedicated to supporting military families with funeral honors free of charge — folded an American flag and presented it to Town of Hempstead Clerk Kate Murray, concluding the ceremony — and bringing Murray to tears.
“I’ve gone to Four Chaplains ceremonies many times before — my father served in World War II,” Murray said. “Today’s ceremony was so poignant. I was so grateful to be presented the flag.”
