Who’s Packing YOUR Parachute?

I received this in an email from the principal of my daughter’s school and thought I would share it.

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Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed by a surface-to-air missile. Plumb ejected & parachuted into enemy hands. He was captured & spent six years in a Communist prison. He survived that ordeal & now lectures about lessons learned from that experience.

One day, when Plumb & his wife were sitting in a restaurant, a man at another table came up & 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 & gratitude.

The man pumped his hand & 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 might have looked like in a Navy uniform-a Dixie cup hat, a bib in the back, and bell bottom trousers. I wondered how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk.

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table in the bowels of the ship carefully weaving the shrouds & 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.

Plumb 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, & his spiritual parachute.

He called on all these supports before reaching safety.

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Created on Jan 4th 2012 14:58. Viewed 298 times.

Comments

Jasmine A.   Another Great Day Ahead! =) Hi Michelle, Very heart warming...I really like it that you shared this article with other members here on apsense. Thank you for sharing a very good article. =) Jan 4th 2012 15:21

Jasmine A.   Another Great Day Ahead! =) *liked and tweeted* =) Jan 4th 2012 15:25

Dawson Walton  Fiction Writer Thank goodness he knew what he was doing. I want him to pack my Parachute. Jan 4th 2012 16:31

Nnamdi Agha   Internet Marketer Thanks to all of you who have been packing my parachute on the internet. I hope to use it as well as Charles Plumb used his. Thanks for sharing; one more reason to show gratitude to others. We couldn't have got here without others. Jan 4th 2012 17:45