FOUR-CHAPLAINS
by Alan Edwards
None of the participants knew exactly when the Tucson Veterans Affairs Committee
first started observing the “Four-Chaplains’
Memorial Service”; but it definitely began before the late 1990s and
most certainly after 1943. Held annually in February, most recently at the Kino
Veterans Memorial Park, the ceremony honors four chaplains who perished in
February 1943 after their troop-ship was torpedoed by a German U-Boat. The four
chaplains organized abandon-ship procedures and gave their life-vests to four
soldiers, who survived. The four-chaplains went down with the ship. In 1961
Congress authorized a special “Medal of Heroism” given posthumously to the four
chaplains. Today, a portrait of the chaplains is on permanent display at the
“Four Chaplains Chapel” at Valley Forge, PA.
This year’s service was organized and emceed by SAVAHCS Chaplain John Zinck. Veterans’ organizations were
well represented: the Fleet Reserve Association (FRA); American Legion; Jewish
War Veterans Association (JWA), Military Order of the Purple Heart (MOPH); and
the Disabled American Veterans (DAV). The VFW was represented by Members and
Auxiliary of Tucson Post-10188.
The event itself was ‘well done’: the USAF Honor Guard from Davis Monthan AFB
opened the ceremony by posting-the-colors, followed by salute to the flag then
invocation. Mr Martin Stephens,
Chairman of the Tucson Veterans Affairs Committee, welcomed guests and
participants. Biographies of the four chaplains were read, followed by some
hymnal singing and distinguished spokespersons offering inspirational remarks
with tributes to all chaplains. The FRA performed the Navy’s ‘Two-Bells’
ceremony, followed by wreath laying. The proceedings concluded by VFW Post
10188 Honor Guard displaying the colors and Gary Harlan playing Taps on his bugle ...
this was a very memorable event.
VFW Post-10188 and
Auxiliary members who attended this years “Four-Chaplains Memorial Service” at
the Pima Veterans Memorial Park in Tucson, (L-R): Geneva Malone; Robert DiVarco; Ken Short; Mike O’Daniels; Mike Utter; Frank Hayes; and Gary & Crissy Harlan.
Video of Event
