The FReeper Foxhole Remembers The Four Chaplains(2/2/1943)

Reverend
George L. Fox

George L. Fox was born March 15, 1900 in Lewistown, Pennsylvania. In addition to George, he had a sister Gertrude and brothers Bert, Leo and John. When George was just 17, he left school, and with strong determination, convinced the military authorities he was 18 and joined the ambulance corps in 1917, shortly after the United States entered World War I. George was placed in the ambulance corps and shipped to Camp Newton D. Baker in Texas. On December 3, 1917 George embarked from Camp Merritt, New Jersey, and boarded the US Huron enroute to France. As a medical corps assistant, he was highly decorated for bravery and was awarded the Silver Star, Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre.

Upon his discharge, he returned home to Altoona, completed his last year in high school, and went to work for the Guarantee Trust Company. In 1923 he entered Moody Institute in Illinois, where he married at Winona Lake, Indiana. After he withdrew from Moody, he became an itinerant preacher in the Methodist faith. A son, Wyatt Ray, was born on November 11, 1924. After several successful years, George held a student pastorate in Downs, Illinois. He entered Illinois Wesleyan University in Bloomington in 1929 and graduated with an A.B. degree in 1931. Again as a student pastorate in Rye, New Hampshire, he entered the Boston University School of Theology. George was ordained a Methodist minister on June 10, 1934 and graduated with a S.T.B. degree. He was appointed pastor in Waits River, Vermont. Their second child, Mary Elizabeth, was born shortly thereafter. In 1936, he accepted a pastorate in Union Village, Vermont. His next calling was in Gilman, Vermont where he joined the Walter G. Moore American Legion Post. He was later appointed state chaplain and historian for the Legion.

In mid 1942, George decided to join the Army Chaplain Service and was appointed July 24, 1942. He went on active duty August 8, 1942, the same day his son Wyatt enlisted in the Marine Corps. He was assigned to the Chaplains school at Harvard and then reported to the 411th Coast Artillery Battalion at Camp Davis. He was then reunited with Chaplains Goode, Poling and Washington at Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts and their fateful trip on the USAT DORCHESTER. Chaplain Fox was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross.

Rabbi
Alexander D. Goode

Alexander D. Goode was born in Brooklyn, New York on May 10, 1911. His father was a Rabbi and his mother, Fay had two other sons, Joseph and Moses, and a daughter, Agatha. Alex received medals at Eastern High School, Washington, DC for tennis, swimming and track. He led his class in scholarship too! He planned to follow in his father's footsteps and become a Rabbi, but that did not keep him from having a laughing, shouting, hail-fellow-well-met boyhood with all the Protestant and Catholic boys in his neighborhood. He graduated from Eastern in 1929.

He entered the University of Cincinnati and graduated in 1934 with an A.B. degree...and then on to Hebrew Union College with a B.H. degree in 1937. He later received his Ph.D. from John Hopkins University in 1940.

Alex married his childhood sweetheart, Theresa Flax, daughter of Nathan and Rose Flax. Theresa was a niece of singer and motion picture star, Al Jolson. They were married on October 7, 1935. As an ordained Rabbi, his first assignment was a synagogue in Marion, Indiana in 1936. On July 16, 1937 he was transferred to the Beth Israel synagogue in York, Pennsylvania until mid 1942. Alex and Theresa had a daughter, Rosalie, who was born in 1939.

In January 1941 he applied as a chaplain with the U.S. Navy but was not accepted at that time. Right after Pearl Harbor, he tried again, this time with the Army, and received an appointment on July 21, 1942. Chaplain Goode went on active duty on August 9, 1942 and was selected for the Chaplains School at Harvard. He had courses in map reading, first aid, law, and chemical warfare. Chaplain Goode was then assigned to the 333rd Airbase Squadron in Goldsboro, North Carolina. In October 1942, he was transferred to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts and Alex was reunited with Chaplains Fox, Poling and Washington, who were classmates at Harvard.

It was January 1943 when he boarded the USAT DORCHESTER in Boston and embarkation to Greenland. Chaplain Goode was killed in action on February 3, 1943 in the icy waters of the North Atlantic when the DORCHESTER was sunk by a German U-boat. Chaplain Goode was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross.

Reverend
Clark V. Poling

Clark V. Poling was born August 7, 1910 in Columbus, Ohio. He was the son of Susie Jane Vandersall of East Liberty, Ohio and Daniel A. Poling of Portland, Oregon. In addition to Clark, the other children were Daniel, Mary and Elizabeth. Clark attended Whitney Public School in Auburndale, Massachusetts where his teachers remembered his maturity and delicate side of his nature. The Auburndale days came to an end when his mother died in 1918. She is buried at Greenlawn Cemetery, Uniontown, Ohio. Clark's father was an Evangelical Minister and in 1936 was rebaptized as a Baptist minister. Reverend Daniel Poling was remarried on August 11, 1919 to Lillian Diebold Heingartner of Canton, Ohio.

Clark attended Oakwood, a Quaker high school in Poughkeepsie, New York, and was a good student and an excellent football halfback. Clark was a council member and president of the student body. In 1929 he enrolled at Hope College in Holland, Michigan and spent his last two years at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, graduating in 1933 with an A.B. degree. Clark entered Yale University's Divinity School in New Haven, Connecticut and graduated with his B.D. degree in 1936. He was ordained in the Reformed Church in America and his first assignment was the First Church of Christ, New London, Connecticut. Shortly thereafter, he accepted the assignment of Pastor of the First Reformed Church in Schenectady, New York.

Clark was married to Betty Jung of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and the next year, Clark, Jr. (Corky) was born. With our country now at war with Japan, Germany and Italy, he decided to be a chaplain. Talking with his father, Dr. Daniel A. Poling, who was a chaplain in World War I, he was told that chaplains in that conflict sustained the highest mortality rate of all military personnel. Without hesitation, he was appointed on June 10, 1942 as a chaplain with the 131st Quartermaster Truck Regiment and reported to Camp Shelby, Hattiesburg, Mississippi, effective June 25, 1942. Later he attended Chaplains School at Harvard with Chaplains Fox, Goode and Washington after his transfer to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts. Shortly after the USAT DORCHESTER was sunk February 3, 1943, his wife, Betty, gave birth to a daughter, Susan Elizabeth, on April 20. Chaplain Poling was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross.

Father
John P. Washington

John P. Washington was born in Newark, New Jersey on July 18, 1908. His parents were Frank and Mary; in addition they had daughters Mary and Anna, and sons Thomas, Francis, Leo and Edmund. In 1914, John was enrolled at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Elementary School. In those days, times were rough for a poor immigrant family, but John had his father's Irish grin and his mother's Irish stick-to-itiveness. He liked to play ball, but he had a newspaper route to help his mother with extra money, since there were nine mouths in the Washington household to feed. John started to take piano lessons, loved music and sang in the church choir. When he entered seventh grade, he felt strongly about becoming a priest...during the previous year, he became an altar boy and his priestly destiny was in process.

John entered Seton Hall in South Orange, New Jersey to complete his high school and college courses in preparation for the priesthood. He graduated in 1931 with an A.B. degree. He entered Immaculate Conception Seminary in Darlington, New Jersey and received his minor orders on May 26, 1933. John excelled in the seminary, was a sub deacon at all the solemn masses, and later became a deacon on December 25, 1934. John was elected prefect of his class and was ordained a priest on June 15, 1935.

Father Washington's first parish was at St. Genevieve's in Elizabeth, New Jersey, and then he served at St. Venantius for a year. In 1938 he was assigned to St. Stephen's in Arlington, New Jersey. Shortly after the Pearl Harbor attack of December 7, 1941, he received his appointment as a chaplain in the United States Army. He went on active duty May 9, 1942 and was named Chief of the Chaplains Reserve Pool, Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Indiana. In June 1942, he was assigned to the 76th Infantry Division in Ft. George Meade, Maryland. In November 1942, he reported to Camp Myles Standish in Taunton, Massachusetts and met Chaplains Fox, Goode and Poling at Chaplains School at Harvard.

Father Washington boarded the USAT DORCHESTER at the Embarkation Camp at Boston Harbor in January 1943 enroute to Greenland. Chaplain Washington was killed in action on February 3, 1943, when the DORCHESTER was sunk by a German U-boat. Chaplain Washington was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Distinguished Service Cross.

Four Chaplains Commemorative U.S. Postage Stamp
The Original First Stamp Design

This is the history of the design of the U.S. postage stamp, the Four Chaplains stamp as told to me by my father, Louis Schwimmer, the original designer. More recently, this history has been supplemented with information and references generously provided by James Patterson, Chairman of the Essay-Proof Committee, United States Stamp Society. The Four Chaplains stamp commemorates an act of bravery during World War II which stands today as a foremost example of interfaith courage and bravery in action in the United States.

Note: The stamp design below was the original stamp design by Louis Schwimmer. The stamp as issued by the United States Post Office Department modifies Schwimmer's first design.

The four chaplains story in brief is this:, four American chaplains of different faiths, Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic, each gave away their life preservers and their chances for survival when their ship, the USS Dorchester was mortally struck. The four chaplains went down together with the ship.

Much has been written and done to commemorate this extraordinary event in US and religious history. A number of Internet web sites have more information about these remarkable men, about the story, and about efforts that have been made to perpetuate their memory, and honor their example.

The issuance of the stamp was unique because it was issued less than than ten years after the men died. Customarily, the Post Office Department (now the U. S. Postal Service) did not issue commemorative stamps until ten years after the person had died.

This is the story, as I know it, of the U.S. postage stamp that my father, Louis Schwimmer, designed to commemorate the event.

My father was the head of the Art Department of the New York City branch of the U.S. Post Office Department. He was assigned to create and man this department beginning during the 1930's when the New York City Postmaster, Albert Goldman, discovered he had a talented artist in his midst.

Postmaster Goldman recognized the value of promotional activities and publicity. My father's ability to create everything from postage stamps, cachet designs, morale-building massive display campaigns, posters, even calligraphic proclamations served the concerns of promoting the work of the New York City Post Office for a period of over twenty years from the mid 1930's until my Dad retired in the mid 1950's

In 1947 or 1948, Goldman was approached about designing a stamp to commemorate the chaplains. My father assumed the organization originating the concept was the National Conference of Christian and Jews.

It was in fact a different interfaith organization. An account by the originator of the concept, Claire A. Wolff, appears in an article by Sol Glass, writing in Bureau Specialist, September 1948, Vol. XIX, No. 9. Following Miss Wolff's letter, Glass' article continues: "According to Postmaster Goldman's office no individual artist can be given credit for the original drawing of this stamp. The drawing of this stamp was submitted by Postmaster Goldman to Mr. Geist's committee and then transmitted to the Post Office Department in Washington" This is inaccurate. In fact, Goldman gave the assignment only to my father and submitted my father's finished work directly to the committee and to Washington.

My father was a practicing Orthodox Jew. Although it was part of his job description to create this stamp, my father took great pleasure in the opportunity to commemorate a fellow Jew. Historically, this may be the first stamp commemorating a Jew. It is undoubtedly, the first US postage stamp designed by a Jew that commemorates a Jew.

The design process was as follows: My father's created the original design as a pen and India ink hand drawing. The original measured approximately 7" high by 12" wide including the stamps serrated edge frame. Still in New York, a different department of the New York City Post Office created a lithograph plate from the pen and ink drawing and lithographed the design. A llithographed copy was given to my father. The plate and the lithograph was sent off to the Washington, DC headquarters of the US Post Office Department which generally issued new stamps.

The original design was subsequently revised. According to The Essay Proof Journal, of January 1950, Vol. 7, No.1, Whole No. 25, Section 1, there were three designs revised from the original. The final design is closest to the original design and maintains Schwimmer's concept but still introduces a number of changes.

Compare the two Versions

First Version

Final Version

The changes:

The ship was changed to look like the historically correct ocean liner and not a battleship
The portraits of the chaplains shows the four men as young men in their twenties, my father's depicted older men who looked like they were in their fifties. The chaplains actually ranged from mid thirties to mid-forties when they died.
Parts of my father's text were omitted:
- the three faiths, "Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish"
- the statement, "Died to save men of all faiths
Font changes and text placement.

About the changes:

Schwimmer generally worked from photographs for historical accuracy. Here, his portraits of the men and ship are not historically correct. I assume he was not provided with photographs.
No photo-reduction was performed in New York which would have shown sans serif fonts clearer than serif fonts.
Was it a socio-political decision to not list the specific faiths of the four chaplains or emphasize the point of "all faiths"?

My father being rather modest, some might say oblivious, never noticed his design had been changed in the final stamp issued. In the mid 1990's, nearly 40 years after the stamp was issued, my cousin, Murray Schwimmer, very proud of his uncle's work, had collected the stamp and an article about the four chaplains. When the three of us looked close, we first noticed the changes.

The signature on the lithograph dates from sometime in the late 1980's or early 1990's. Dad was in his late 80's or early 90's, when we finally persuaded him to sign some of his work. The replica full screeen version of the lithograph includes his signature which postdates the creation of the lithograph by roughly forty years.

Additional Sources:

www.schwimmer.com/fourchaplains
www.fourchaplains.org
www.homeofheroes.com
foxfall.com
www.virtualnewarknj.com
www.immortalchaplains.org

Of the 920 men who left New York on the U.S.A.T. Dorchester on January 23rd, only 230 were plucked from the icy waters by rescue craft. In addition to the Four Chaplains, 668 other men went to a watery grave with the ship. Had it not been for the Chaplains, the number of dead would certainly been much higher.

The Distinguished Service Cross and Purple Heart were awarded posthumously December 19, 1944, to the next of kin by Lt. Gen. Brehon B. Somervell, Commanding General of the Army Service Forces, in a ceremony at the post chapel at Fort Myer, VA.

On May 28, 1948 the United States Postal Service issued a special stamp to commemorate the brotherhood, service, and sacrifice of the Four Chaplains.

A posthumous Special Medal for Heroism, never before given and never to be given again, was authorized by Congress and awarded by the President January 18, 1961. Congress wished to confer the Medal of Honor but was blocked by the stringent requirements which required heroism performed under fire. The special medal was intended to have the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor.

THE CHAPEL OF THE FOUR CHAPLAINS became one of the most enduring tributes to Reverend Fox, Rabbi Goode, Reverend Poling, and Father Washington. Time has dimmed the memory of the four great men, and with that fading memory the chapel itself has slipped into the background of the American conscience.

Four Chaplains' Medal
(Army)

Establishing Legislation

The Four Chaplains' Medal was established by Act of Congress (Public Law 86-656, 86th Congress) on July 14, 1960.

Event Commemorated

This medal commemorates the extraordinary heroism and devotion to duty displayed by four American chaplains during the Second World War. It was awarded posthumously to Chaplains George L. Fox, Alexander D. Goode, Clark V. Poling, and John P. Washington for giving their life vests to others during the sinking of the troop transport ship Dorchester in the North Atlantic just after midnight on February 2, 1943. The four Chaplains were also posthumously awarded the Army's Distinguished Service Cross for their extraordinary heroism in action.

Order of Precedence

Since the Four Chaplains' Medal was posthumously awarded to only four recipients, it does not have a place in the Army's order of precedence.

Devices

No devices were authorized for this medal.

Designer

The Four Chaplains' Medal was designed by Thomas Hudson Jones (1892-1969) of the Army's Institute of Heraldry..

First Recipients

The four chaplains who received this medal were George D. Fox, Alexander D. Goode; Clark V. Poling, and John P. Washington. The medal was presented posthumously to their next of kin by Secretary of the Army Wilber M. Brucker at Ft. Myer, Virginia on January 18, 1961.

Description and Symbolism

Obverse

In the center of a gold oval, the general shape of an eagle with elevated wings with an overall width of two and one-sixteenths inches and height of two and five-eighths inches. The eagle is shown grasping olive branches in both talons; the branches extend upward and terminate at the eagle's wings, forming a wreath. The soaring eagle is representative of the majesty of the spirit of the government in whose service the Four Chaplains gave the last full measure of devotion. The olive branches symbolize spiritual peace and renascence.

Reverse

In the center of a gold oval two inches in width, an open book containing the names of the Four Chaplains. Above the left side of the book is a cross, and above the right side are the Tablets of Moses with a Star of David. An olive wreath extends upward from the base of the medal. The Christian Cross and the Tablets of Moses with the Star of David represent the faiths of the Four Chaplains whose names are inscribed forever in the annals of heroism.

Ribbon

The central stripe of blue is the same shade as the ribbon of the Medal of Honor and symbolizes courage above and beyond the call of duty. The black edge stripes symbolize the "last full measure of devotion" rendered by the Four Chaplains.

Veterans for Constitution Restoration is a non-profit, non-partisan educational and grassroots activist organization. The primary area of concern to all VetsCoR members is that our national and local educational systems fall short in teaching students and all American citizens the history and underlying principles on which our Constitutional republic-based system of self-government was founded. VetsCoR members are also very concerned that the Federal government long ago over-stepped its limited authority as clearly specified in the United States Constitution, as well as the Founding Fathers' supporting letters, essays, and other public documents.

Tribute to a Generation - The memorial will be dedicated on Saturday, May 29, 2004.

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~ Thanks to our Veterans still serving, at home and abroad. ~ Freepmail to Ragtime Cowgirl | 2/09/04 | FRiend in the USAF

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Good morning to all at the Foxhole!

To all our military men and women, past and present,
THANK YOU for serving the USA!

OHhhhhh...neat thread.

xzins, ping to a great thread. :)

Morning Radu! Always nice to see your colorful salutes.

Good Morning

My latest thread on why NOT to vote for hanoi john

John F-inging Kerry on the death penalty

Morning Spooky. Looks like I beat Snippy in this morning. :-)

You find a nice bottle in which to put your "Official Oregon Rain Water"?

Thanks GailA. Good Morning. You mean there's more than one reason to not vote for that arraogant SOB!!???

Sadly it is one of MANY.

I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you. —John 13:15

When Jesus took a servant's towel—
His honor set aside—
He humbly showed us how to serve,
And how to conquer pride. —Sper

It's difficult to stand on a pedestal and wash the feet of those below. .

FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

Good Wednesday Morning Everyone

If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

Good morning radu.

Good morning spooky, this is an excellent story.

Good morning, snippy and everyone at the Freeper Foxhole.

Folks, please be sure to update your anti-virus software. Today's the day Norton updates their anti-virus list.

Sam I'd never heard about this story until you first mentioned you were working on the thread, thanks so much for sharing it with us.

Said one of the survivors, "It was the finest thing I have ever seen this side of heaven."

Very touching.

Morning Gail, thanks for the link to the thread.

Good morning Mayor.