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While many army memorial days commemorate soldiers who died fighting, Four Chaplains Day commemorates four soldiers who died while rescuing lives.
The Four Chaplains were four World War II chaplains who died rescuing civilian and military personnel alike when the American troop ship SS Dorchester sank on February 3, 1943.
Though each of the four chaplains was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross and the Purple Heart. The chaplains were found ineligible to receive the Medal of Honor, as they had not engaged in combat with the enemy.
Instead, Congress created the Four Chaplains’ Medal especially for them in 1960, with the same weight and importance as the Medal of Honor.
#FourChaplainsMemorialDay
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_Chaplains
- https://www.congress.gov/crec/1998/01/27/CREC-1998-01-27-pt1-PgS69.pdf
