LYNN — When Jack Marino began researching the four chaplains, hailed as heroes for their actions aboard the doomed USAT Dorchester, he discovered a key piece of the story was missing.

Marino, a former commander of the Capt. William G. Shoemaker, American Legion post in the city, said he began researching the chaplains when he brought the idea of doing the service at First Church of Christ to the Rev. Jack Swanson, the church’s pastor. In doing so, he discovered the story of Petty Officer Charles Walter David Jr.

David enlisted in the U.S. Coast Guard in March 1941 and was assigned to the Coast Guard cutter USCGC Comanche when the U.S. entered World War II. The Comanche’s captain, ignoring the possibility of it being struck by a torpedo-like the Dorchester had, maneuvered his ship to attempt to collect survivors. Many survivors struggled to climb aboard the ship due to the freezing temperatures, so David and several others volunteered to throw on primitive wetsuits and dive in. David and his shipmates helped save 93 survivors — and David singlehandedly rescued the Comanche’s executive officer, Lieutenant Langford Anderson, who had fallen overboard.

Yet, David is never mentioned in the retellings of the story of the four chaplains, who sacrificed their own life jackets to help save others on the Dorchester. The story focuses on the camaraderie between the four men, all of different faiths, who linked arms and prayed as the ship went under.

But Marino is out to change that, beginning with Sunday morning’s service at the First Church of Christ, where he and Swanson made a concerted effort to tell David’s story. The sermon delivered by Swanson actually featured a dialogue between the two men, each assuming the role of a survivor of the incident, Swanson, the Dorchester, and Marino the Comanche, having a conversation at a 30-year reunion.

It’s a fitting role for Swanson, himself a former Navy chaplain.

In an interview following the service, Swanson said the focus on the four chaplains has waned over the years.

“So many years I forget about it, and then when it’s done, it’s usually a quick little announcement,” he said. “It gets routine.”

With Marino’s idea of highlighting David, the church had a new way to honor the tragic event on its 81st anniversary.

Each year, a different American Legion post hosts the four chaplains service, Marino said. In 2024, the post selected was Haverhill, meaning the turnout for Sunday morning’s event in Lynn was relatively low. But, Marino is hoping Lynn, which shares a post with Saugus, will be selected in 2025 to draw more attention to David, a largely forgotten hero.

“He’s no less of a hero than the four chaplains,” he said.

The reason David has been left out of the history? Marino suspects it’s because he was Black.

“A lot of the history through the years about leaving him out of the picture, I think, is obvious because he was Black. And I feel strongly about that, that needs to end. We need to end racial prejudice. We need to end religious prejudice.”

As it turns out, Black History Month proved to be an ideal time to turn the spotlight onto David.

“It’s a story that needs to be told. Everybody we’ve talked to, relative to this story, they’ve never heard of David,” Marino said. “It’s way overdue. It’s been 81 years.”

Marino’s goals for broader recognition of David’s heroic actions extend beyond just his inclusion in the four chaplains’ ceremony.

The Coast Guard awarded David a Navy and Marine Corps Medal following his death, but according to Marino, he was ultimately deemed ineligible for a medal of honor because his actions were not undertaken during active combat. In Marino’s view, a ship being struck by an enemy submarine, in this case a German U-boat, qualifies as combat.

“I don’t know why they’re kind of splitting hairs there,” he said.

To rectify the perceived omission, Marino has reached out to elected state and federal officials to see if they would back the effort. Absent that support, Marino plans to begin a petition drive to gain signatures from local veterans groups in an attempt to publicize the effort.

“It’s too late for them to see it themselves, but for their families, they’re being awarded the Medal of Honor, which is deserving. If they earned it, they should get it,” he said. “It’s a very honorable thing to do.”