Jeff Heggie Daily Success Strategies


276: Gratitude – Who Packed Your Parachute?


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The Story of Charles Plumb:


Charles Plumb was a US Navy jet fighter pilot in Vietnam. During a mission, he was shot down. Plumb ejected and parachuted into enemy hands. After six years in captivity, he survived and was freed.


One day while eating at a restaurant, a man 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. Charles Plumb in surprise and gratitude had to catch his breath.


The man then shook 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.”


That night Plumb could not sleep. He said, “I kept pondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform. I wondered how many times I might have seen him and not even said good morning, or how are you, or anything, because, you see, I was a fighter pilot and he was just a sailor.”


Plumb thought a lot about that man who had packed his parachute and the hours he spent at a wooden table at the bottom of the ship carefully packing his and other’s chutes. He held in his hands the chute; the fate of someone he did not even know.


In our lives, how many people have a hand in packing our parachutes?


It’s very easy to overlook the work of those that sacrifice so much for us.