From the Air Force to the pulpit

Pastor Charles Underwood of Clarksville’s St. John’s Lutheran Church served in the Air Force from 1974 to 1994.
     He took basic training at the age of 21 at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.
     “What I remember mainly was the unbelievable heat. There were red flag days over 100 degrees, where they could not make you go out and run,” Charles Underwood said. “In the 10 weeks I was there, there were 19 red flag days. What they did was get you up at 3 a.m. before the sun came up to exercise.”
            After basic training, he was transferred to Pope Air Force Base in Fayetteville, North Carolina where he did heating and air conditioning work as part of a Rapid Engineer Deployable Heave Operational Repair Squadron (RED HORSE). They exercised their skills in war games.
 
Read more in the December 7 edition of the STAR.