Travelin' man

Staff

Published Monday, November 29, 2004

By Ann Austin, Tribune staff writer

Earl Christensen had plans to work in aviation, but his life took a different path.

A life-long resident of Albert Lea, Christensen was born at 424 W. College St. on Feb. 9, 1922.

He attended school in Albert Lea through junior college, then entered the Institute of Technology and Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. In 1944, he was drafted to serve in World War II and worked as an airplane mechanic on B24s, B17s and B29s in Alamogordo, N. M.

El Paso was about 100 miles south of Alamogordo and Christensen was one of the only people to witness the first atomic bomb.

"I was on the crew that night," he said. "The whole field lit up for about 10 seconds, just as bright as day and no one knew what happened."

But they knew something top secret was going on. "We never did know until they finally dropped the first bomb on Japan," he said.

Afterwards he was shipped to Iwo Jima and maintained aircraft until he was discharged August of 1946, because the war was over.

Christensen returned home and attended school for aeroengineering at the University of Minnesota in the Twin Cities, where he ended up meeting his wife, Irene. They were married the spring of 1947 and moved to Baltimore, Md. to start a new life together. But work was not to be found in the aero-nautics field. The war was over and there was no need for war planes. "I went out to the plant and asked for a position but they said they just laid off 2,000 engineers," he said.

They tried for a year to make a life in Maryland, but it just wasn't working so they came home.

Christensen worked in different jobs, as an auto repairman, for an ice machine company, for Streaters and Weyerhaeuser. He didn't mind having so many different jobs. His life's work turned out to be worth far more than money or prestige.

In January of 1965, Christensen attended a program at church about the World Brotherhood Exchange. He decided to give of himself and signed up to work as an automobile repairman in New Guinea. "I was there for 80 days and six hours," he said. He had to leave his job at Streaters at the time, but it was worth it.

From then on Christensen continued to visit other countries doing good deeds. Irene and their children Patricia, Alan and Jerry also went on some of the trips.

In 1968, they traveled to Madagascar, then visited Cameroon the next year. After that, they were stationed in Africa and spent over two years in Sudan. "It was a hundred miles past the end of nowhere," he said. They worked on building a repair shop for well-drilling equipment. "We had to fight for supplies. The natives would sometimes grab (them) for their own use," he said. It was a learning experience for he and his wife. "There was a lot of poverty and a lot of warring going on between the south and the north," he said, citing one morning where about seven automobiles had been burned by the side of the road. "They would take it out on whatever they could," he said.

But what also shocked him was how little people knew. One evening, Christensen was outside when there was a lunar eclipse. The natives were worried and didn't know what was happening. He explained it to one of the local men the next day. "They got very little schooling," he said.

After Sudan, Christensen and Irene went on two more trips, to the central African republic and one more time to the Cameroons to do follow-up work.

Christensen credits his drive to the will of God. "It was something God said 'that's your job,'" he said. But it helped to have such a willing partner. Even though he was 42 years old when the trips began, with children to care for, Irene was entirely agreeable to the work. "She just fell right in with it," he said. And she had fun too.

At one point Irene decided to make bread in the middle of nowhere on a single kerosene stove.

"It's just the idea that she never backed out on anything," he said. "Our trips were covered well by love and the Lord."

(Contact Ann Austin at ann.austin@albertleatribune.com or 379-3435.)

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