D-Day war hero proud of big practical jokes

"Eruption" of Mount Edgecumbe a top April Fool's Day scheme

PALMER — D-Day, June 6, 1944, is a day that will live in the heart of American history. Thanks to the movie "Saving Private Ryan," many Americans feel as if they were there, on the beach. But one Alaskan who really was there can't remember exactly what happened.

Porky Bickar, believed to be Alaska's oldest living D-Day veteran, said he remembers everything leading up to the morning the Allied forces invaded Normandy in one of the most famous and deadly battles in history. He remembers everything after the battle. But he can't give details of that fateful day.

"I was talking to a friend who was there with me the other day, and I'll be darned if he can't remember anything from that day either," Bickar said. "I don't know why."

Bickar, a master storyteller, recounts how his friends joined the U.S. Army, and, on their way to enlist, they stopped by the shop in which Bickar was working and asked him to join them. Without thinking about it, he signed up.

He tells stories about life in the Army, yet none of them deal with D-Day. As much as D-Day defined history and changed the world, it does not begin to define who Porky Bickar is.

While Bickar is a true war hero, it was in the logging industry where he really made a name for himself.

Bickar grew up in Washington and began a career in logging before going into the U.S. Army for three years. Upon his discharge, he was back at it.

In fact, he returned to the logging industry by setting a world record, one recognized by Guinness.

He set the record for felling more timber in one year than any other person in history. He accounted for 10,300,000 board feet of timber in a single year, by himself.

While not felling trees, he served as a role model for many young loggers. Hank Nelson was one of them.

"Porky was like a mentor to me. He is a true legend in the logging industry," Nelson said. "He was a friend to me when I needed one, and he will give the shirt off his back to anyone who needs it."

Bickar started the All Alaska Logger's Show, which offered the largest purse of any logging show. Lumberjacks and loggers from around the country flocked to Sitka for the event, and Bickar's legend grew as he would fell a gigantic spruce tree so precise it would smash a hard hat placed on the ground.

Bickar even performed the stunt for a crowd in the nation's capital, as he was invited to demonstrate a complete logging operation at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C., in 1984.

A decade before, however, was Bickar's biggest day. An admitted practical joker, Bickar pulled off the mother of all practical jokes on April 1, 1974. It even garnered media attention from around the world.

Living in Sitka, Bickar decided it was time for nearby Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano, to finally erupt. Or at least look like it was erupting.

With his buddies, Bickar rounded up hundreds of old tires and a helicopter. Early that day, they unloaded the tires in the crater of Mount Edgecumbe, and stamped out "April Fool's" in 50-foot letters in the snow. They then lit the tires, and flew back to Sitka.

With Mount Edgecumbe "erupting," it didn't take long for everybody to figure out the prank. In the meantime, however, the Associated Press picked up the story about Mount Edgecumbe's eruption, and it ran with a photo in newspapers around the world, before it was realized the eruption was no more than smoldering tires.

"It was on the front page around the world," Bickar said. "That was great."

People remembered the prank years later, when a more famous eruption really did occur, and made front-page headlines around the world once again.

"A couple of years later, after Mount St. Helens erupted, I got a manila envelope from an attorney in Denver," Bickar said, a smile beaming across his face as he remembers the prank. "There was a picture of Mount St. Helens, and all it said was, ‘This time, you little S.O.B., you've gone too far.' Everybody remembers that prank."

Bickar even has pins made up of an erupting Mount Edgecumbe.