BY JONATHAN CANNON
HEARLD DEMOCRAT
In 26 years, a Texoma native's career as an Air Force chaplain took him from homeland Texas to frozen Greenland to the tropics of the Philippines with a number of unexpected experiences along the way. After 13 years pastoring for churches in Texas, Denison native Carl Bilderback said he was called into the chaplaincy. He reflected on that career this Veteran's Day.
Carl spent the years in civilian ministry pastoring in four different churches, with his wife Dorris, ending in a church in Ennis, Texas.
"As had happened before, I felt like the Lord was getting ready to move me from the church I was pastoring and that, to me, meant to another church," he said. "But every time I would pray about it, I would just hit a blank wall.
"One morning when I was in my office in the church, praying about this, I looked up and there was a brochure on my desk that said, 'Have you consider the military chaplaincy?' And I said, 'No Lord, I haven't.' There was just almost an audible voice that said, 'This is where I want you.' To me that was the marching orders that started it all."
So without any prior service in the military or even prior interest, Carl began the process of apply for the Air Force chaplaincy and his home mission board and waiting for a slot to open up. It took two years. "But when it started happening, it happened very quickly."
In 1968, less than three weeks before he would have been too old to join, his name came up. After some basic training, Carl and his family were off to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas.
McConnell AFB, Kan.
"It was all the way from fear to ecstasy," Carl said, describing his emotions at the time.
He said the base's primary mission at the time was training pilots before leaving for Vietnam, which meant he spent time counseling after aircraft accidents, getting his first introduction to this the night he arrived on base.
"My name was on every scratchpad at every gate I guess," he said. "So when the crash happened they had a chaplain with a name, and they just called me. I didn't know protocol then and that I should call my boss. I just went. It was an introduction that got me working pretty strongly with the fly squadrons."
When he reached McConnell AFB, it was with the understanding that he would be deployed to Asia within a year. "I had two sets of orders, but in both cases the Air Force canceled them."
Carl essentially lived out of a suitcase during those years, and continued counseling after crashes. "It's a pretty traumatic time, but it's also a great time for ministry," he said.
Dorris and Carl also worked with the families of those who were missing in action or prisoners of war. The family later learned that it was this work that kept Carl out of Asia
"I found out later, that someone in D.C. had noted that Dorris and I were working with the POW, MIA families... and decided to leave us there, (rather) then send me overseas."
However, after four years, Carl and Dorris did still find themselves separated.
Sondrestrom, Greenland
Carl was sent to Sondrestrom, Greenland, above the Arctic Circle, and Dorris returned to her hometown of Port Arthur, Texas.
"It was our first lengthy separation, and from that point it was not very good," he said.
But as the only chaplain on the base, he had little time to be lonely. Carl served 105 Air Force personnel and 300 Danish civilians. One of the largest challenges of the post, besides the separation and the frigid temperatures -- minus 50 degrees in the winter -- the area experienced around-the-clock daylight during the summer and the opposite during the winter.
"You end up losing your identity with time and that's a very weird feeling," Carl said. "I'd catch myself being very tired, wondering why ... and then I'd look at my watch and it was two o'clock in the morning and not six o'clock in the evening."
Carl managed to form a number of close relationships, including a small core group, dubbed the chaplain's gang by Danish Princess Elizabeth Désirée, who visited the area, which serves as a retreat for the royal family, during Carl's tour there. Désirée, who was the Danish King's niece at the time, became friends with Carl during her visit.
"It was quite an experience," Carl said. "We became close friends. In fact, we're still Christmas card friends and I still hear from her -- get a long letter from her every year."
Carl also got the opportunity to visit Denmark, after a Danish family asked him to prepare their son for entry into the Danish church.
Carl said the family made the request because there was no Danish priest in Greenland. "I laughed with (the boy's father) and said, 'I don't think your church would accept my teachings, and my church probably would not give me the permission to do so.'"
Still the father was insistent, so Carl agreed on the condition that he had "the permission and the material to work with and if you'll let me teach the scriptures as I know them."
He made the trip to Denmark to discuss the differences in the Baptist and Danish faiths with Denmark's chief of chaplains. "We found out we were closer in many ways."
Carl returned to Greenland with the credentials and began teaching the course to three boys, but he had to condense the two-year study to the six months he had left in Greenland. The intensity caused two of the boys to drop out, but one stuck with it.
Carl had his lone student learn the material in Danish and English and the accompanying scriptures. When he completed the course, a priest accompanied by Queen Margrethe II came to the Sondrestrom for the boy's confirmation.
"He was set out in the middle of the group and questioned by this priest... The priest would ask him something in Danish and (the student) would answer it, usually yes or no.... Then before (the priest) could ask another question (the boy) would say something else."
Finally, Carl asked what was happening and a friend told him the boy was accompanying his answer with the appropriate scripture reference.
"The priest turned around and said to the whole congregation, in Danish, 'I don't know a priest in all of Denmark that can do that.'"
Back in the states
From there Carl and his family moved to McCord AFB in Tacoma, Wash.; Laughlin AFB in Del Rio; Air Command and Staff College in Montgomery, Ala.; and Arlington National Cemetery in Va.
While at Arlington, President Jimmy Carter declared those still missing in action in Vietnam to be killed in action, allowing their families to hold memorial services.
"A lot of our McConnell people showed up at Arlington while I was there," he said. "My primary mission there was preaching mission there was preaching funerals as you can imagine ... and my church field was walking the halls of the Pentagon."
In 1979, the family moved to Hickum AFB in Hawaii, then Whiteman AFB in Missouri and Headquarters Tactical Air Command at Langley AFB in Virginia.
Clark AFB, Philippines
In 1988, Carl again was sent outside the U.S., however, this time Dorris was able to join him. The pair went to Clark AFB in the Philippines.
"We went through three typhoons and one major earthquake while we were there," Carl said.
The worst of which was the July 16, 1990 earthquake that killed more than 1,000 people. Following the 7.7-magnitude quake, the Air Force personnel were instrumental in the recovery and rescue efforts.
Rescue efforts were hampered by roads that isolated Baguio, one of the most devistated cities. This forced all supplies, which had to be airlifted, through the base.
"I was put in charge of getting the food and medicines up there to them," Carl said. "It was devastating to see big hotels that were 13, 14 stories tall, just collapse like dominos....The whole city was that way."
Less than a year later, and five weeks after the couple moved back to the U.S., the island volcano, Mount Pinatubo, blew.
"When our plane took off to come home, Mount Pinatubo was just billowing, smoke and ash and everything."
Air Force Intelligence Command, San Antonio
The couple moved, in 1991, to Kelly AFB in San Antonio, where Carl served as the chaplain for the Air Force Intelligence Command.
"I lived out of a suitcase for about three-and-a-half years," he said. "On just one trip, I made it all the way from (an) Air Force base in northern Alaska down to Alice Springs in Australia then back up through Hong Kong and Thailand and Korea and Japan." The trip took three weeks.
During his time there, Carl served military personnel with highly classified jobs.
"I could go into an area with those high clearances and people could come and talk to me about their job-related things."
The San Antonio base was Carl's last military home. He retired in 1994 and returned to civilian ministry, but not without discovering the unexpected about those in the armed services.
"I marveled at the youth and the commitment in our intelligence force," he said. "I also marveled ... at some of the deep, deep religious convictions that our people had. That's something as a pastor before I went in, I didn't know it existed."