RSS 2.0 FeedFebruary 10, 2011, Bellmore Life
Celebrating the historic heroism of four chaplains
North Bellmore Boy Scout Troop 577 learns history.
“I was a young man of 21 years old when I first boarded the U.S.A.T. Dorchester. I had never been on a boat as big as that before, only canoes and dinghies,” remarked 90-year-old Benjamin Epstein to laughter at Sunday’s extraordinary ceremony at the Bellmore Presbyterian Church to honor four chaplains who sacrificed their lives during the sinking of the ship on a very cold night on February 3, 1943.
Mr. Epstein was a survivor of that sinking, which took place in the notorious “Torpedo Junction” area of the North Atlantic, where German submarines had been sinking ships almost daily.
“Because it was my first time on such a big ship, I was worried about seasickness,” he told the hushed parishioners and attendees of the ceremony. “So, I went down to see the ship’s doctor to ask about what foods to eat so that I wouldn’t be sick,” he continued.
“Well,” he said, “the doctor told me to eat loads of strawberries,” Mr. Epstein remembers of that conversation, as well as just about everything else that happened that night when the former luxury liner, converted to a soldier transport ship, was hit by a German torpedo.
“Oh, strawberries are good at keeping sickness away?” he then remembers asking the doctor. To which the doctor then replied, “No. They just taste twice as good as anything else that comes up!”
As attendees roared their approval at his humor, he brought them all back to the reason they were gathered. “This is an honor,” he said, “It marks 68 years on February 3.”
“Those chaplains,” he continued, searching for words, “what they did was heroism at its very finest.” He added that among the things he has come away with after all these years is that people have to learn to live together in peace.
He’s talking, of course, of four chaplains from three different faiths who, on a bitterly cold night in the North Atlantic as the ship began taking on water, listing and sinking after a direct hit from a German U-2 boat, calmly took off their life vests and gave them to others to save their lives.
The four chaplains, two Protestant, one Catholic and one Jewish, had all met one another years before at Chaplains’ School at Harvard University, and became steadfast friends, living to serve God while developing a brotherhood among them that ended only when they went down together on that ship.
The ceremony, “Four Chaplains – Back to God,” was sponsored by the American Legion, and included four Boy Scouts from American Legion, North Bellmore Troop 1749, who received life vests symbolic of the sacrifice people of God give so others may live.
Along with the Presbyterian church’s Rev. James Barnum, other speakers included Father Joe Coschighano of St. Barnabas Church, Rabbi Mickey Baum of Temple Beth Am in Merrick, and Rev. Joe Cusack of Levittown Community Church.
Each gave a presentation on the chaplains all were gathered to hear about: Rabbi Alexander Goode; Rev. George L. Fox, Rev. Clark V. Poling; and Father John P. Washington.
Father Coschighano spoke about the memory of Chaplain John P. Washington, saying of the chaplain that at the moment of the ship’s sinking, Chaplain Washington was heard to be singing and speaking the Lord’s Prayer. When asked afterward about a man’s singing at that point in his life, Father Coschighano said simply that it was the joy the chaplain felt at his supreme sacrifice, and of going home to God.
An old Native American saying would have pronounced that Chaplain Washington died a good death.
Four life vests, symbolic of the life vests give up by the chaplains, were then passed onto four Boy Scouts from Troop 1749 of the American Legion in North Bellmore.
Joe Anselmo, eighth-grader at Grand Avenue Middle School; Chris Pollini, seventh-grader at GAMS; Evan Lui, 11th-grader of Mepham High School; and Matt Murphy, 11th-grader at Mepham; all received the life vests, symbolic of the passing of life from one to another.
Frank Colon Jr., commander of the Nassau County American Legion – and former commander of the North Bellmore American Legion – said the reason the Boy Scouts received the life vests was to “teach them about important moments in American history.” He added that the symbolic gesture could also mean that Boy Scouts save people, too.
“This is amazing,” said Joe, words echoed by Chris. Matt said he felt very good about the symbolic significance of receiving the life vests. “It’s so important what has happened in the past,” he said, and to be part of it was significant to him.
Mr. Epstein told Bellmore Life afterward that he thinks about his harrowing survival every day. As the ship took on water, he said he was frozen and unable to move because of the vicious cold, and he survived thanks to the soldiers who helped get him into a lifeboat.
If there is a moral, he said, it is, “Never give up.”
