Remembering the WW2 Army chaplain martyrs

Feb. 3 will mark the 82nd anniversary of the tragic loss of four U.S. Army chaplains who were aboard the SS Dorchester when the Army transport ship was torpedoed by a German submarine while on its way from New York to Greenland.

As the vessel was about to sink and the ship’s supply of life jackets ran out, the chaplains selflessly gave up the life preservers they were wearing and gave them to four frightened soldiers, knowing full well they would be going down with the ship. For this unselfish act of bravery, faith and selflessness, the four were posthumously awarded special medals for heroism authorized by Congress and presented to their families by President Dwight Eisenhower. These gallant clerics were Methodist minister George Fox; a rabbi, Lt. Alexander Goode; a Catholic priest, Lt. John Washington; and a Dutch Reformed minister, Lt. Clark Poling.

The Kings County American Legion will hold its 65th annual memorial tribute in the Post Chapel at Fort Hamilton, on Thursday, Feb. 13 at 6 p.m. The event will be chaired by American Legion District 2 Commander Charles Hall, a retired U.S. Navy lieutenant commander and a chaplain still active with the Brooklyn VA Hospital in Dyker Heights. Among the participants will be Maj. Jonathan Bailey, the Fort Hamilton Garrison chaplain, A.L. Kings County Commander Ray Wrigley and Peter DeAngelis, chairman of the United Military Veterans of Kings County.  The Pipe and Drum Corps from the FDNY Emerald Society will provide musical accompaniment.

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Brooklyn and Queens Catholics attended the annual Pro Vita Mass celebrated by Brooklyn Bishop Robert Brennan at the Cathedral and Basilica of St. James on Jay Street in Downtown Brooklyn on Jan. 19.  During the service, Bishop Brennan blessed and dedicated a bronze statue of Father Michael McGivney that was recently installed in the Cathedral and donated by the Knights of Columbus.

Immediately following the Mass, Father Michael Gelfant, the pastor of Blessed Trinity Church in Breezy Point, Queens and Brooklyn Diocese liaison to the K of C, along with the bishop presented special K of C awards. The honorees were Mario Massa of the K of C Immaculate Conception Council in Astoria, who received the Bishop Thomas Daily Memorial Award, and Sister Caroline Tweedy, RSM executive director of St. John’s Bread and Life, who received the Father Michael McGivney Medal for Life.

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I’m sure NYPD bagpiper Sean Flanagan will be bursting with pride as he hosts the 2025 Brooklyn Independence Day Parade fundraiser at 7:30 p.m. on Jan. 31 at the Knights of Columbus building on 86th Street and 13th Avenue. You see, the retired police lieutenant was one the musicians in the Emerald Society Pipe and Drum Corps that marched in President Donald Trump’s Inaugural Parade on Tuesday, Jan. 20 in the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.

Flanagan  has been serving as the parade chairman of the Independence Day Parade for the past three years and tells us the 2025 patriotic march will be a big salute to the 250th anniversary of America.