ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Gov. Mark Dayton has ordered state flags be flown at half-staff in honor of Immortal Four Chaplains Day.

Sunday is the 70th anniversary of the tragic sinking of the U.S. Army transport ship Dorchester off the coast of Greenland.

In 1957, Congress established a national observance of the event that honors the four chaplains of difference faiths whose heroic acts saved the lives of many men.

According to survivors, while the ship was sinking in 1943, the four chaplains went to each soldier to calm fears and hand out life jackets. When there were no more life jackets, the four chaplains removed their own life vests and gave them to soldiers. The chaplains — one Methodist, one Jewish, one Catholic and another Dutch Reformed — went down with the ship.

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