Jewish group fights for chaplain monument at Arlington

Arlington, Virginia (CNN) – Three German torpedoes ripped through the icy waters of the Atlantic off the coast of Greenland. On February 2, 1943, the USS Dorchester was transporting 902 U.S. servicemen to war. Only one torpedo hit, but it struck a deathblow – killing scores instantly and resetting the ship’s course to the bottom of the ocean.

 

Amid the chaos, survivors later recalled, four U.S. Army chaplains fought to bring calm and comfort, praying for the dead and encouraging the living to fight for survival. They helped frightened servicemen find life jackets and head to rescue craft. Each of the four chaplains gave up his life jacket to save the life of another.

All four stayed on the ship’s new course to the bottom of the ocean and gave their lives so others might live. The last thing survivors saw of the four chaplains, they were huddled together praying.

Lt. George Fox, a Methodist chaplain; Lt. John Washington, a Roman Catholic chaplain; and Lt. Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed chaplain, are each memorialized on Chaplains Hill at Arlington National Cemetery on monuments honoring the service of Protestant and Catholic chaplains killed in the line of duty.

He quickly alerted Jewish military groups to the missing monument.

Since World War I, 13 Jewish chaplains have died while on active duty.

“It’s a matter of principle. It’s a matter of keeping faith with those who kept faith with us,” said Rabbi Harold Robinson, a retired admiral who served as a U.S. Navy chaplain for nearly two decades and who now heads the Jewish Chaplains Council.

“There are about 255 chaplains who died in active service; 242 of them are memorialized on Chaplains Hill. From my perspective that’s wrong,” he said.

“If you’ve been in the military, you know about the bond,” he said. “You don’t leave 13 behind. I don’t think anyone intentionally did that. I think that’s where it’s at, and I think we have a chance to bring them home.”

Robinson and Kraetzer got the ball rolling three years ago. They reached out to Arlington officials who, they said, told them if they raised the money privately and had the monument approved by the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, it could be erected at Chaplains Hill.

They partnered with veterans groups, both Jewish and non-Jewish, and quickly had enough money and a design.

“The money’s been raised. The design is analogous to the existing monuments,” Robinson said.

But things went south at Arlington after a scandal over mismarked graves forced a former superintendent out. The new administration at Arlington said the group would need an act of Congress to put up the new memorial.

“To have the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate pass a bill to allow a memorial, while not very controversial in and of itself, is not the easiest thing in the world to do,” said William Daroff, who is government affairs director for the Jewish Federations of North America.

The Jewish Federations of North America was asked by the Jewish Chaplains Council to help get the attention of Congress to pass the bill.

“I don’t think it was a purposeful slight of the Jewish community,” Daroff said. “But now that it’s come to our attention and the attention of Jewish chaplains, it’s natural that our nation should stand up and say thank you.”

They have enlisted several members of Congress to try to help pass the bill. The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the matter this month. If the bill makes it out of committee, it would head to the House floor for a vote and, if passed, would go to the Senate.

As the memorial moves closer to reality, the excitement is building among members of the group involved as well as family members of the fallen chaplains.

“It’s very, very meaningful to the families,” Kraetzer said. “We’re hearing from more and more of the families of the 13 chaplains, and it means the world to them to have the recognition for their family member.”

“Every cross, every monument, at Arlington bears a story,” he said. “That’s one of our goals – to get the story out.”