Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. After 75
combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb
ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spent 6 years
in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal and now lectures
on lessons learned from that experience!
One day, when Plumb and his wife were sitting in a
restaurant, a man at another table came up and said, "You're Plumb! You
flew jet fighters in Vietnam from the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were
shot down!"
"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped in
surprise and gratitude. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it
worked!"
Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chute hadn't worked, I wouldn't be here today."
Plumb couldn't sleep that night, thinking about that man.
Plumb says, "I kept wondering what he had looked like in a Navy uniform: a
white hat; a bib in the back; and bell-bottom trousers. I wonder how many
times I might have seen him and not even said 'Good morning, how are you?'
or anything because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a
sailor." Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long
wooden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and
folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of
someone he didn't know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who's packing your
parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to make it
through the day. He also points out that he needed many kinds of parachutes
when his plane was shot down over enemy territory -- he needed his physical
parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual
parachute. He called on all these supports before reaching safety.
Sometimes in the daily challenges that life gives us, we
miss what is really important. We may fail to say hello, please, or thank
you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that has happened to them,
give a compliment, or just do something nice for no reason. As you go
through this week, this month, this year, recognize people who pack your
parachutes.
----
I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your
part in packing my parachute. And I hope you will send it on to those who
have helped pack yours!
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