Just to set the record straight regarding your above statement. “According to several former employees from the late 1970s era Bill had a landing strip built at his 3,000 acre Big Bear lodge retreat in the Northwood’s and he had it built to accommodate Air Force 1. I am told that he indicated God had told him that one day presidents to come to him and he wanted to be prepared.”

While your statement is partially true it implies a runway large enough to accommodate the president’s usual Air Force One, a Boeing 747-200, the actual fact is that would be difficult at best due to the size of the airfield. Now anything the president flies in is considered Air Force/Marine/Navy/Army One so even a Piper Cub would qualify. But your statement implies the former. RXW is the identifier for the Northwood Research Center’s Airport located in the Michigan Upper Peninsula just off of HW 2 just across the border from Land of Lakes, WI. The runway is 5000′ long and 75′ wide. A normal 747 runway would be well in excess of 5000’ and is usually 150’ wide) is a lighted strip with VASI (Visual Approach Slop Indicator) at both ends and at one time had an FAA approved NDB instrument approach (407 MHz RXW) and approved weather station. Current the beacon is off the air and the trained weather observers I knew have long since retired. The airport has a heated hanger large enough to accommodate two Lear Jets and at one time had a 10,000 gallon underground fuel tank.

During my 18 month stent (1979-1980) as one of Bill Gothard’s pilots we did have one political seminar at the facility and Bill did hope to have a grass roots influence on politicians based on his both public and private seminars, thus spreading his political agenda. You and I have talked in the past and should well remember, I am by no means a Gothard supporter. Yet I think it is important the get your facts straight since it can diminish your main message that Bill Gothard is a dangerous man.

Keep up the good work,

Larne
Former Gothard Pilot

I would have never suspected many of the problems that we had with our Gothard-loving pastor and our church without actually living through some of that insanity myself. I pray that many Christians will heed the warnings of the many people who survived the Gothard system and rethink the system of Doug Phillips and patriarchy as a result of all your efforts to make these serious problems known to the unsuspecting.

I believe that voting in a president who has steeped in the thought reform programs of Bill Gothard (showing him preference if not deference in the past) will prove quite problematic for the American people. Bill Gothard is so dangerous because he appears so sweet and harmless, but for those of us who have been all the way through the Gothard mill, it is quite a different story. I pray that people realize the truth about “Brother Bill” and consider these issues long before they venture to the polls.