A Chaplain’s Saga of Love, Valor, and Loss

By Andrew Carroll | HistoryNet  | 0 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Rabbi Goode enlisted in the U.S. Army, completed his orientation at Harvard University’s chaplain school, and at age thirty-two was ready to deploy overseas, leaving behind Theresa—now his wife of six years—and a baby daughter. Just before he embarked for Europe in January 1943 on the troopship USAT Dorchester, he wrote to his wife.

Darling:

Just a hurried line as I rush my packing. I’ll be on my way in an hour or two. I got back yesterday afternoon just before the warning. Hard as it was for us to say goodbye in N.Y. at least we could see each other before I left. Don’t worry—I’ll be coming back much sooner than you think. Take care of yourself and the baby—a kiss for each of you. I’ll keep thinking of you.

Remember I love you very much.

Alex

These were the last words Theresa Goode ever received from her husband. At 1:00 a.m. on February 3, 1943, the Dorchester was torpedoed by a U-boat one hundred miles off the coast of Greenland. As soldiers aboard the sinking ship began to panic, Goode, along with three other chaplains—George Fox (Methodist), John Washington (Catholic), and Clark Poling (Dutch Reformed)—calmed the men and handed out life jackets. When they realized there weren’t enough for everyone on board, the chaplains removed their own life jackets and gave them away. The last anyone saw of the chaplains was the four men locked arm in arm, praying together as the ship went down, taking them and 672 other men to their graves in the waters of the Atlantic. The bodies of the chaplains were never found.

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