The annual Memorial Day ceremony in Lewiston will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Veterans Memorial Park.

The event will honor those who gave their lives in military service and recognize the “courage, sacrifice and service” of the Four Chaplains, four men who sacrificed themselves to save others when their ship was torpedoed during World War II.

A new monument will be unveiled to honor U.S. Army chaplains Lt. George Fox, a Methodist minister; Lt. Alexander Goode, a Jewish rabbi; Lt. Clark Poling, a Dutch Reformed minister; and Lt. John Washington, a Catholic priest.

Though the chaplains were not local men, their story “reminds us that in our nation’s hardest moments, courage, compassion and faith still shine through,” said Jerry DeWitt, executive director of the Lewiston-Auburn Veterans Council.

The name of another World War II chaplain, the late U.S. Army Lt. Col. Fr. Leonard LeClair, a Catholic priest born in Lisbon, will appear on the reverse side of the monument.

The veterans council is inviting all military families, veterans and the public to attend the service at 2 Main St. in Lewiston.

“This is more than a ceremony. It is a time for families to stand together and pass on the meaning of service, sacrifice and love of country to the next generation,” DeWitt said.

DeWitt found the monument in a storage building at Maine Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Augusta, he said. The stone is being engraved at Collette Monuments in Lewiston.

DeWitt said he hopes parents will bring children to the event to hear the story of the Four Chaplains.

The four chaplains gave their life jackets to troops on the U.S. Army Transport Dorchester after it was hit by a torpedo from a German submarine on Feb. 3, 1943, and sunk as it traveled across the Atlantic Ocean toward an American base in Greenland during World War II.

The converted luxury ocean liner carried 902 servicemen, merchant seamen and civilian workers with only 230 survivors, according to the Four Chaplains Memorial Foundation.

The chaplains prayed together with those on the ship as it went down.

“Their final act of unity and sacrifice remains one of the most moving stories of heroism in American military history,” according to a media statement.

The Rev. LeClair, born in Lisbon in 1908, lived in Lewiston for about 10 years. He was the first Catholic chaplain at the Togus Veterans Administration Medical Center in Augusta and served there for over 20 years.

The featured speaker for the ceremony Saturday will be Bill Kaemmer, executive director of the Chapel of Four Chaplains Foundation in Philadelphia, who will unveil the monument. 

Additional participants include representatives of the Maine Army National Guard; Pastor George Sheats of St. Michael’s Church in Auburn and the U.S. Army; Pastor John Robbins, a Marine Corps veteran; Sheryl Moore, state of Maine American Legion veteran; Kevin Woodward, state chaplain for the Veterans of Foreign Wars; and chaplain James Law of the Civil Air Patrol, U.S. Air Force Auxiliary, Northeast Region.

Color guards will include members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts, the Kora Shrine Temple Legion of Honor, and veterans. James Thibodeau of the Kora Shrine Band and an Honor Flight volunteer will serve as bagpiper and perform the service songs and “Amazing Grace.” The Marine Corps will play taps.

Gold Star Mothers Joyce Richmond and Bethel Shields will lay a wreath in honor of the fallen. The ceremony also will recognize several names being added to Stone No. 35. There will also be a cannon salute.