Previous Challenge Entry (Level 2 – Intermediate)
Topic: Write an INSPIRATIONAL or DEVOTIONAL piece (04/26/07)
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TITLE: No Greater Love | Previous Challenge Entry
By Virginia Lee Bliss
04/30/07 -
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“Take them, Jack. I have another pair.”
If Jack goes back to his locker for his gloves he will die, thought Alex.
Finally Petty Officer Mahoney agreed to take the gloves. Alex helped him into his life jacket and said a prayer for him.
The smell of engine oil and the stench of ammonia assaulted the nostrils. After sweltering for days in the oppressive heat from the ship’s engine, now the men shivered in the winter Arctic air. The frigid waters of the North Atlantic threatened. Icy fear clutched the men’s hearts.
A German U-boat had just torpedoed the U.S. Army transport ship, instantly killing one hundred men. All power was lost, leaving the remaining eight hundred men to grope in darkness.
Seeing his vessel take on water, the captain shouted “Abandon Ship!”
Most of the men had left life jackets and warm clothing in their lockers. As the doomed ship listed, terror and panic reigned.
John ran up on deck to the main storage locker. After seeing to it that all the surviving men were topside, he and Alex started handing out life jackets. Clark and George brought order to the chaos by organizing the men into lines.
John helped Washington Jones into a life jacket.
“Your first name is the same as my last name,” smiled John. “Reason enough for me to look out for you.”
“God bless you, sir,” said the black seaman.
Clark helped Private Tony Di Loretto with his life jacket.
“Sir, I’d like you to have this.” Tony handed him his silver crucifix that had belonged to his grandfather.
Tears sprang to Clark’s eyes because he knew how much the crucifix meant to Tony.
Seaman Casimir Tymieniecki donned a life jacket with Alex’ help, while George assisted Private Sam Greenberg.
Clark and George, John and Alex kept taking life jackets out of the locker and giving them in turn to the next man in line.
The fourteen lifeboats were so overcrowded that all but two capsized, dumping their desperate passengers into the dark waters.
Private Bill Bednar, without a life jacket, struggled in the oily water. The voices of George, Alex, Clark, and John gave him courage to persevere amidst the debris and dead bodies, amidst the cries of the dying. Summoning all his strength, he swam to a life raft.
One half hour since the torpedo had struck. Thirty minutes of panic and death. Only about two hundred men safe. Nearly six hundred still trapped.
George said, “There are no more life jackets.”
All at once the four men began taking off their life jackets. Alex and John, George and Clark, gave the gift of life to the next four men in line.
An eyewitness recalled, "It was the finest thing I have ever seen or hope to see this side of heaven.
Before his eyes John and Clark, Alex and George linked arms and offered prayers for the men remaining on the ship.
Many men died that day in February 1943 on the doomed transport ship, the Dorchester. Were it not for these four lieutenants, many more would have died:
George Fox, Methodist Minister
Alexander Goode, Reform Rabbi
Clark Poling, Dutch Reformed Pastor
John Washington, Roman Catholic Priest
The story of the four chaplains quickly became legend. The men were awarded posthumously the Distinguished Service Cross, the Purple Heart, and the one time only Special Medal for Heroism.
Before World War II most Americans tended to interact mainly with people like themselves. But during the war many men and women forged friendships with persons of different races, religions, nationalities, and socioeconomic groups.
The four chaplains became a symbol for this new spirit that was permeating American life and that would ultimately lead to racial equality, to the ecumenical movement, and to the passing of classism.
In the war against evil and tyranny many brave men and women gave their lives. The four chaplains are honored not only for how they gave their lives but also for how they lived their lives.
Mary Elizabeth Fox received this letter that her father sent shortly before he boarded the doomed ship. "I want you to know how proud I am that your marks in school are so high---but always remember that kindness and charity and courtesy are much more important."
“Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13)
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REFERENCE: http://www.homeofheroes.com/brotherhood/chaplains.html
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