Who's Packing Your Parachute?

Just recently I came across this article that I thought provided an excellent message for all of us to live by. Charlie Plumb was a jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. After 75 combat missions, his plane was destroyed. Plumb ejected and parachuted and spent six years in a P.O.W. camp.

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 from the 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 might have looked like in a Navy uniform and how many times I might have passed him on the Kitty Hawk not even saying 'Good Morning'. You see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor."

Plumb thought of the many hours the sailor had spent on a long wooden table carefully folding the silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fate of someone he didn't know.

Plumb, a lecturer now asks his audience, "Who's packing your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides what they need to help them make it through the day.

This might be a good time to think about who packed your Parachute! Everyday we have people back stopping us. Today it might have been your spouse; yesterday it might have been a foremen or farm hand. Don't forget to show your appreciation to all those who make you look good.

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