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Interim Jackson County Mayor Joey Denson signed a proclamation declaring February 2 as Four Chaplains Sunday in honor of the sinking of the U.S. Army Transport ship Dorchester in 1943.
American Legion Post 129 Member Truman Stearnes requested the proclamation. Stearnes said the day is meant to honor four U.S. Army Chaplains who gave away their life jackets to save other soldiers as the ship sank.
“And their combined act of supreme devotion and sacrifice for American liberty and human freedom are an inspiring and ever-shining example of real brotherhood for all the time, for all the people of the world,” Stearnes said.
Stearnes read the proclamation and said the community must see to it that the chaplains’ sacrifice and call to human freedom and justice was not in vain. Denson said he signed the proclamation directly after the meeting and the paperwork would get filed shortly afterward.
“February 3, 2025 will mark the (eighty-second) anniversary of the sinking of the troop ship USAT Dorchester which carried to their deaths four U.S. Army Chaplains of three faiths who stood united in prayer as the ship went down,” Stearnes said.
Stearnes said the chaplains were Protestant, Jewish, and Roman Catholic. Their names were Lieutenant George L. Fox, Lieutenant Alexander D. Goode, Lieutenant Clark V. Polling, Lieutenant John P. Washington.
The proclamation calls upon all the county’s citizens to commemorate the day with “appropriate observances in public places and by prayers in their own house of worship.” Denson said he had not heard anything about the request before Stearnes spoke at the meeting.
