LIVERMORE FALLS – The small table in the middle of the room served as a make-shift shrine honoring four chaplains who made the ultimate sacrifice for their men. Surrounding a small, lit candle with a dove symbolizing peace were six hats representing the five branches of the United States military and civilians.

In the corner was a lone chair with an old-fashioned life vest and pair of gloves.

“Because all services played a part that fateful night that the Dorchester was sunk,” said John Dube, chaplain of the American Legion George Bunten Post 10 in Livermore Falls.

Dube and groups from the Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 3335, Amvets Post 33, and auxiliaries from the three organizations presented the town’s first “Four Chaplains” ceremony. About 40 people turned out to remember the story of four Army chaplains – each of a different faith – who died saving lives and offering encouragement and hope to the 900-plus soldiers and sailors on the doomed USS Dorchester.

The U.S. Army troopship was sunk by a German submarine on Feb. 3, 1943, in the frigid North Atlantic while transporting the soldiers to a base in Greenland. Aboard the ship were the Rev. John Washington, a Catholic priest, the Rev. Clark Poling, a Protestant minister, Rabbi Alexander Goode and the Rev. George Fox, a Methodist minister. The Army chaplains met while attending chaplain’s school at Harvard University months earlier.

“It’s important to remember in any way that we can the people who sacrifice their lives for this country,” said the Rev. John Hall of the First Baptist Church, who read the biography of Chaplain Poling. “They were all trying to do what they could to best serve within their faith.”

The chaplains were last seen on the deck of the sinking Dorchester, arms entwined and calling out prayers to the soldiers and sailors adrift and awaiting help in the icy North Atlantic. They had given their life jackets to others aboard the ship, which sank in less than a half hour after two direct torpedo hits.

“If we can work together, then we can undertake objective that stands in our way. By working together, we can overcome any obstacle and that’s what these four chaplains did,” Dube said. “We need to keep the children aware so our history of the greatest generation – World War II veterans – and their supreme sacrifices will never be lost.”

Besides a 1948 U.S. postage stamp honoring the Four Chaplains, the Congress authorized the “Four Chaplains Medal” that included the Star of David, Moses’ tablets and a Christian cross that were given to the chaplains’ families.

On a long table in front of the room were four wooden crosses and a Star of David. By the end of the hour-long ceremony, each bore a single black ribbon honoring the chaplains who gave their life jackets, lives and hope to the 230 soldiers and sailors who survived the nation’s third worst loss at sea during World War II. Among the 668 who perished were the chaplains.

“No greater love hath any man that he would give up his life for his friend,” said Don LaSuer, reading from an e-mail sent to him by a Portland rabbi and friend.

The World War II veteran and member of VFW Post 3335 pulled double duty as a member of the color guard, as well as reading Chaplain Goode’s biography. LaSuer said it is important to hold ceremonies such as Sunday’s because it is history that needs to be passed along to the next generation.

An eyewitness account from Pvt. William B. Bednam was read by Betty Houle, who represented the V.F.W. Post 3335 Auxiliary. It summed up the chaplains’ courage: “I could hear the chaplains preaching courage. Their voices were the only thing that kept me going.”

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To learn more about this inter-faith story, check out “No Greater Glory: The Four Immortal Chaplains and the Sinking of the Dorchester in World War II” by Dan Kurzman or “Sea of Glory” by Ken Wales and David Poling.