Charles Plumb was a U.S. Navy jet pilot in Vietnam. Af=
ter 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile=
=2E Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured and spen=
t 6 years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal an=
d now lectures on lessons learned from that experience.
One day, when Plumb=
and his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man from another table came u=
p and said, "You’re Charles Plumb! You flew jet fighters in Vietnam fr=
om the aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. You were shot down!"
"How in =
the world did you know that?" asked Plumb.
"I packed your parachu=
te," 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 that chute hadn’t worked, I wouldn’t be here today.&=
quot;
Plumb couldn’t sleep that night, thinking about that man.
=
Plumb says,=
"I kept wondering what he might have 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 sail=
or."
Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent at a long wo=
oden table in the bowels of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds and fol=
ding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of so=
meone he didn’t know.
Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who’s packing you=
r parachute?" Everyone has ‘someone’ who provides what the=
y need to make it through the day. Sometimes in the daily challenges that l=
ife gives us, we miss what is most important. We may fail to say hell=
o, please, or thank you, congratulate someone on something wonderful that h=
as happened to them, give a compliment, or just do something nice for no re=
ason.
Today I’d encourage you to stop and think, "Who’s packing MY par=
achute?" Then DO SOMETHING about it.
[Author Unknown]=
~~
=
Dr Bob Griffin
[email protected] www.grif.=
net
"Jesus Knows Me, This I Love!"
=