Who Packed Your Parachute Today
Charles Plumb, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate, was a 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 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 sailor." 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 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. 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, 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 parachute.
Anon
PARISH of WIGMORE ABBEY
Majority Standard Bible. Matthew’s Gospel. Chapter 25 verse 40
And the King will reply,
‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of Mine, you did for Me.’
You never know just who you are dealing with. Editor