Charles Plumb was a U.S. 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.