Fred Hargesheimer and the value of missionary zeal

On Christmas Eve 2010, among all the news doing the rounds of the world’s media outlets was the obituary of one ordinary man with an extraordinary story: 94 year old Fred Hargesheimer.

Fred’s death was a quiet affair without any public fanfare, but he deserved so much more.

As I read the story of Fred’s life¹, I realised I was reading about yet another extraordinary person from what has been called the greatest generation of all: those who survived the great depression and the Second World War.

Fred was shot down over New Britain, the island immediately to the north east of the New Guinea mainland, on June 5th 1943 as he flew a single man aerial photographic mission to provide information to the Americans command who were trying to produce accurate maps and locate Japanese bases and naval movements.

But it was Fred who was located in his Lockheed P-38 which they nicknamed “Eager Beaver” because it had absolutely no weaponry on board. It was just the pilot, a lot of fuel and a camera. You had to be an eager beaver to want to go up in one, the story went.

Fred was picked up by a lone Japanese fighter & was struck in the head as his plane was riddled with bullets. Bleeding from the wound with engines ablaze, Fred ejected from the plane and parachuted to the ground.

Years later, Fred somehow tracked down the pilot who brought him down that day. It turns out the Japanese pilot could have cut Fred to pieces while he floated in his chute but could not bring himself to shoot a helpless pilot like that. That was only the first of several amazing events Fred would experience.

Upon landing on New Britain, Fred used his parachute as a bandage and a tent and survived 31 days in the jungle with just two ‘candy bars’, which were gone in three days. Apart from that, Fred tried snails, bamboo shoots and even a fish. He shot it with his pistol.

All alone & quite possibly dying, Fred said he recited the 23rd Psalm every day; drawing upon his formative years as an Episcopalian Lay reader.

On July 6th, his 31st day in the jungle, Fred was spotted by natives from Ea Ea, now known as Nantambu. They took him to their village where they gathered for a feast.

Not surprisingly, Fred knew he was the guest of honour. His training had taught him about ‘head hunters’ and now he sat watching as the locals began preparing for a meal. They were having him for dinner, but in exactly what way he was unsure.

In his book, The School that Fell from the Sky, Fred described the scene vividly as he sat amongst complete strangers that night, not knowing if this meal would be his last.

As the villagers began their celebration, they began to sing. Fred understood none of it because, naturally, it was pidgin they were speaking, but the tune was familiar: Onward Christian Soldiers.

In the years prior to the outbreak of the war in the Pacific, faithful missionary organisations had sent their most daring servants high into the jungles of New Guinea & its surrounding islands.

It was such men and women as these who had worked in the highlands of New Britain. The villagers of Ea Ea, by the grace of God and as the result of faithful missionary service, had responded to the gospel and been converted to Christianity.

The Lord and Shepherd of Psalm 23 had indeed walked with Fred through the valley of the shadow of death. The day Fred had been shot down out of the sky was, by any measure, the worst day of his life. And yet, it turned out to be such a blessing.

The villagers of Ea Ea had their feast and then set about nursing Fred back to health. It took several months, but they never wavered, despite the imminent threat to their own lives.

When the Japanese foot soldiers scoured the area (their base was just 10k’s away) Fred would scurry up a tree and wait it out. The villagers, mostly the children, would sweep away his footprints to remove all traces of him.

When he developed malaria as a result of a prolonged mosquito attack on one of these long tree stays, a native woman expressed breast milk and gave it to him each day.

Eventually Fred was nursed back to full health at which point the villagers navigated their way through the dense jungle to the coast where Australian “Coastwatchers” had been working behind enemy lines. Here Fred met up with two other pilots who had been shot down.

After 3 months of waiting, the group made their way to a beach where they met a US submarine which took them to Dreger Harbor on the PNG mainland from where they flew to Brisbane.

While ‘Hargy’, as his mates knew him, was MIA, his pay had been accruing. Upon arrival back in Australia, he received nine months’ back pay and discovered he had been promoted to Captain.

After a series of debriefs, Hargy was awarded a glittering cache of medals: Purple Heart, Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal - Asiatic-Pacific Campaign among them.

Fred married in late 1944, was promoted to Major and had his first child just as the war in the Pacific came to an end in August 1945. Two more children came along  in the late 1940’s and life settled down to normalcy.

However, Fred could never forget what the villagers of Ea Ea had done for him. It worked on him over the next 16 years.

It is 10,000 miles and a world away from White Bear Lake, where I live with my wife, my two sons, 14 and 13, my 12-year-old daughter. But, for 16 years, something kept reaching out to me from the native village of Nantambu [formerly called Ea Ea], in New Britain. It was an obligation I felt to these people who had saved my life, had hidden me in the tropical wilderness from the Japanese who had shot my plane out of the sky. How could I thank the woman called Ida, whose mother’s milk was the only food my desperately ill body would accept? I had to go back and repay my debt of gratitude. ²

In 1960 Fred finally returned to the island of New Britain. Many of the villagers who helped him through those days were still there & celebrated his return. It would not be the last time they celebrated for “Mastah Preddie” (pidgin for Master Freddie) would return again and again over the coming decades; 15 trips in all.

After the first trip in 1960, Fred started telling his story to as many Americans as he could. They gave mostly in small chunks; perhaps $10 to$20, but within a couple of years, the Airmen’s Memorial Foundation of PNG had $15,000 in the bank.

The Airmen's Memorial School opened in 1964 with four classrooms, four native teachers, one headmaster (Australian Jim Bye) and 40 students.

Understandably, when Fred returned to the U.S. his thoughts were constantly with his new school. He returned in 1969, but this time remained with his wife, Dorothy, for four years to help administer the school.

The school grew to 240 children. They built a health centre, a library and eventually helped establish a Palm Oil industry which survives to this day.

In the year 2000, the villagers bestowed on Fred the greatest honour they could by naming him “Suara Auru”, which means “Chief Warrior”.

During the ceremony, Garua Pani, a pioneer of the Airmen's Memorial School hailed Mr. Hargesheimer as a true soldier who “conquered in the air when he successfully ejected to safety, he conquered on the ground when he escaped pursuing Japanese troops, he conquered spiritually as a result of reciting Psalm 23 daily before he was rescued by the Nakanai villagers who were singing ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. And he continued to conquer when he was nursed to health after the bouts of malaria and dysentery."³

When Fred last visited New Britain, the school was bursting with over 500 students and was on hand to dedicate a new library and handed over the role of chairman of the foundation to an early school graduate. He also met up with Matthew Male, who was the only remaining survivor of those villagers who rescued him in 1943.

In 2006, on the occasion of Fred’s final visit to New Britain, he probably even looked like a tribal chief. Brought back to see the wreckage of his P-38, Fred was in no shape to negotiate the jungles of Nakanai, where he had bailed out all those years ago.

A helicopter was brought in from Rabaul to fly Fred to near the crash site. The remainder of the journey must have humbled Fred immensely.

Then he was carried on a plastic chair with the aid of two long poles, from the helipad to the crash site some 500 meters into the jungle.⁴

He was 90 years old.

THREE THINGS TO TAKE OUT OF FRED'S STORY
1. The value of missionary endeavour
In terms of sheer input, Fred contributed much more to the life of the villagers of New Britain than they ever did to him. Over sixty years, he raised tens of thousands of dollars and transformed their way of life. He gave at least four years of his life in full time service to them.

But the villagers gave everything they had at a time when being caught would have meant instant death. For five months in Japanese occupied New Guinea, those men, women and children showed the true meaning of service. They lived it.

But none of this would have happened (from any human perspective that is) had it not been for the faithful service of those missionaries in the pre-war years. What humble circumstances they must have found themselves in. If it took until Fred was 90 to find his plane, it is hard to imagine what greeted those Christians when they first set foot in the village.

But they stayed & served the Lord under the most trying circumstances. If ever there was a story to encourage young Christians to pursue evangelism, it is this one. What joy it must have given those missionaries to hear of Fred’s story.

Yet, the Bible does not say our motivation to witness should come from any results we get. God alone keeps the true score & we should be happy to leave it with him.

So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. (1 Cor 3:7)

2. The value of Sunday School
Apart from the robust service of those missionaries, God also used Fred’s Sunday School upbringing to draw him in. During those 31 days alone in the jungle, with every reason to suspect he would either die of exposure or be killed by the enemy, Fred repeated Psalm 23 to himself. Why?

Had he been brought up in another faith, that would not have happened and he certainly would not have recognised Onward Christian Soldiers (mind you, I suspect many young Christians today would not recognise it either!)

Surely Fred’s testimony should give encouragement to those who instruct our children in the ways of the Lord. Are you a Sunday School teacher? Do you teach Scripture? Keep at it: you have no idea how God will use your efforts in the years ahead.

3. The truth of the gospel
Hearing the story of Fred Hargesheimer has also reminded me of the transforming power of the gospel. What other explanation could there be for such amazing events? Natives in the highlands of New Guinea singing Onward Christian Soldiers and expressing their faith by putting their lives on the line!

No wonder the Apostle Paul was able to say with confidence,

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. (Romans 1:16)

Footnotes

1. To read a detailed account of Fred Hargesheimer’s life go here. There is also a fascinating interview Fred gave a few years back which you can see here.
2. Hargesheimer, Fred, As told to George Grim. “I Had to Go Back.” (Minneapolis Star and Tribune Company, 1960)
3. PNG National Weekender and correspondence from Mr. Hargseheimer – The Chief Warrior-  October 13, 2000
4. Aime O’Neill - Newsreview.com – A hero’s welcome back -August 24, 2006