Parachutes

Comment: Lots of people pack our parachutes, and the more I think about this the more complicated it gets. This is for our parents who pack our parachutes.


Charlie Plumb was a Shawnee Mission North graduate .... a POW in the

Vietnam War

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.