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| Photo courtesy U.S. Air Force PREACHING TO THE MASSES--Air Force Chaplain Lt. Col. Charles Davidson prepares an Easter worship service in April outside a bombed Republican Guard headquarters building at Baghdad International Airport. Davidson was awarded the Bronze Star Sunday for meritorious achievement. |
The Bronze Star, according to a military Web site, is awarded for "meritorious or heroic achievement" in an armed conflict.
Shortly after the start of the war, the Baptist pastor traveled to Baghdad, then journeyed throughout the Middle East, often during hostile situations, to minister and counsel military members, some of whom were suffering from the stress of the war and being separated from family.
"It could be, 'Chaplain, my buddy was killed,' or 'I don't know where my buddy is,' 'I haven't heard from home,' or 'I have heard from home.'" Davidson said.
"They're crying and they don't know what to do. ... I can't say I know how it feels, but I can sit and listen to them and encourage them the best I can and sometimes have a little prayer with them."
He slept in tents and in bombed buildings. He traveled mostly on foot, losing 37 pounds in the process. Tabiz not only served as Davidson's assistant, helping with services, but also acted as the pastor's armed bodyguard.
Within a week in Iraq, they ran out of communion supplies and started using crackers and Kool-Aid mix from Meals Ready To Eat during services. No one seemed to mind, Davidson said.
For him, one of the highlights of his deployment was ministering Easter services to troops outside a bombed building at Baghdad International Airport.
"Biblically, the Bible says that Adam and Eve were created in the Garden of Eden where the Euphrates and the Tigris join," he said. "I told the troops that if they could draw a circle 150 miles from where we were standing at the airport and turn back the clock far enough, we would have been in the Garden of Eden, or certainly in the perimeter."
Davidson was first deployed to Al Udeid, Qatar, in January where he was the senior flight line chaplain when the planes left for the bombing attack to start the war March 19.
At about 3:30 that morning, the commander for the squadron of stealth fighters asked for his assistance. The commander told him he was going to inform his squadron he had sent two of his pilots on bombing missions and he wanted Davidson to give the invocation afterward.
"I thought that was a pretty awesome and a humbling experience," Davidson said.
That was the start of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Afterward, he stood with others on the flight line, watching aircraft leave one after another for missions in Iraq.
"For about an hour and a half it sounded like the end of the world," he said. "It was so dark so all you could see was all these red fireballs going up in the sky as they passed you.
"We tried to say a prayer for each one that flew by: 'Lord help them accomplish their mission and bring them back home,' and they did. They all came back home," he said.
Then on April 3, the U.S. Central Command chaplain sent him to Saudi Arabia. But shortly after arriving at the base, to his joy, Davidson was told he was needed to minister to troops in Iraq, Jordan, Afghanistan and Kuwait.
"I don't mean this John Wayne-ish, but probably because I was raised as a son of an Army Ranger first sergeant, but I think if you cut me, combat runs through my blood. That doesn't mean I'm a warmonger," said the Bristol, Tenn., native. "I want to be where the fighting is."
Davidson has spent his entire life around the military. His father was a career Army Ranger who spent three tours in Vietnam. Davidson remembered seeing soldiers in training for Vietnam standing in line with their guns, crying and shaking because they knew they could possibly be sent to their deaths.
"They were willing to do their job even though they're scared witless," he said. "I've often wondered what makes a person go into combat and fight and not be really, really afraid. I've come to the conclusion after going into Baghdad and seeing dead bodies and talking to people who are fighting is they are really, really afraid."
He said it was God who told him to become a chaplain after he graduated from college at Liberty Baptist Fellowship in Lynchburg, Va. More than 17 years as an Air Force chaplain later, he considers his experience in the Middle East and the camaraderie of the troops life-altering.
"Military people have a chance to play a part in changing history, not just in the United States, but in the world," said the father of three grown children. "I thought about my children or grandchildren and if they remember me, they remember he was in the military. Even though he didn't carry a weapon, he fought for his country. He fought with the B-I-B-L-E."
Reporter Beth Ipsen can be reached at bipsen@newsminer.com or 459-7545.