John P. Washington

Father Washington was one of four U.S. Army Chaplains who perished during World War II when the troop ship DORCHESTER, in which they were embarked was sunk on February 3rd,1943 by torpedoes fired by the German submarine U-223 while the ship was off Newfoundland enroute to Greenland in the North Atlantic.  Since the waters and air were near the freezing point, nearly all of the nearly 900 troops lost their lives before they could be rescued.  The story of this disaster at sea is heart wrenching and ranks as the second-worst sea disaster of World War II.  After aiding and calming the troops, the Chaplains sacrificed their lives by putting their life jackets on soldiers without them. Because of the sacrifice of these heroic Chaplains, they were all posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC), the US Army's second highest military decoration.