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Dear Friends,
What has happened to
Christian manhood?
What can explain the sad
state of Christian manhood today? Why are so few willing to honorably
serve, let alone sacrifice or risk anything for the cause of our Lord? Why
are so few willing to do their duty for the King of Kings and His heavenly
kingdom? The sacrifice and service by unbelievers on behalf of earthly
kingdoms and temporal liberty ought to make us blush by comparison.
Here is a picture of my
dad, four months after spending fifteen months in three Nazi POW camps,
including Stalag Luft III during the "great escape." Dad was on
two forced marches, one during the worst German winter in fifty years. He
was transported on grossly overloaded boxcars two different times (no
food, no water, no heat, no facilities; strafing, people deathly sick,
etc.). He also spent five days in a Nazi interrogation camp. The last two
camps Dad was in were near, too near, military targets; so bombs were
constantly falling around the camps and shrapnel coming through them.
While he was in Stalag III, one of his friends was shot in the head by the
SS while Dad was standing by him. Dad was put in the last camp—which was
built for 30,000—along with 100,000 POWs and political prisoners whom
Hitler was planning to use as a bargaining chip and, failing that,
liquidate. Eva Braun actually had a hand in foiling that liquidation plan.
It took a fierce battle between SS troops and elements of Patton's 3rd
Army to free Dad and those with him on April 29, 1945. The problem was,
the POWs were right in the middle of the fight. As Dad put it, "We
just laid on the ground and took it from both sides."
My dad was flying missions
with the 8th Air Force as a tail gunner during the worst time of the war
when the Luftwaffe was at its peak. Dad's bomb group had fighter cover for
only a portion of each mission and a number of times had no fighter cover
at all, such as on a grueling twelve-hour mission to Bordeaux, France. A
pilot on that mission said it was worse than the infamous Schweinfurt
mission. The gunners had to fight off wave after wave of fighters all the
way in and out. Dad's plane sustained damage from enemy fighters a number
of times on various missions. Out of eleven missions, it sustained
category A flack damage on three, in addition to the mission it was shot
down on. In spite of seeing his friends die in droves, burning to death,
being blown apart by flack or by fighters; in spite of seeing B-17s go
down in a manner which did not make it possible for anyone to bail out,
Dad volunteered for an extra mission. When I asked him why, he simply
said, "Because they needed someone." In 1950, Dad was back in
uniform for the Korean War. My dad never joined a veterans' group, and he
never talked much about his experiences in the war, much less did he boast
about them. He has shunned any praise for what he did, always saying he
was just doing his duty. Even during the war he never put in to be
credited for the enemy aircraft he shot down. Others did that for him, but
he had no interest in doing it himself. Recently, I told Dad that the
government had a POW medal for him. His response was typical: "Boy,
they're giving out medals for everything these days."
 As
an adult, I was able to get Dad to finally tell me things which his
posterity should know. During an unguarded moment, he did relate an
incident that I think gives great insight into the character of man it
takes to win a war. When he was first captured in January, 1944, Dad was
locked up in a cold, bare cell in an old castle. He was deprived of sleep,
food, and water for several days as he was interrogated, this prior to
being sent to the other interrogation camp I mentioned. Finally, a German
guard brought him a cup of hot tea and held it out to him. My
nineteen-year-old dad—imprisoned, alone, tired, cold, hungry, thirsty,
and thousands of miles from home—looked the guard in the eye and told
him, "I don't like tea." The angry guard threw the tea in Dad's
face.
My father did all the
things I mentioned and much more while yet an unsaved man. (He was
converted to Christ in 1976.) He hazarded his life even though he did not
have the blessed assurance Christians have of eternal life. With zeal,
courage, and unflagging devotion, he fought a good fight for liberty,
family, and country doing above and beyond what was asked of him. May God
send us men with such zeal for His work today. May God raise up young men
who will run to the battle, not for fame or fortune, but because the Lord
is calling them to be men and because the church "needs
someone." Sadly, there seems to be very few men today, young or
otherwise, who will serve the Lord with the courage, tenacity, and zeal
with which my dad served his country. I fear too many of them like tea.
Pastor Ralph Ovadal |
