Charles "Chuck" Plumb¹ 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 six years in a communist Vietnamese prison. He survived the ordeal²（折磨） and now lectures on the lessons he 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 Hawk³. You were shot down!" 

 

"How in the world did you know that?" asked Plumb. "I packed your parachute," the man replied. Plumb gasped⁴ in surprise and gratitude⁵. The man pumped his hand and said, "I guess it worked!" Plumb assured him, "It sure did. If your chutehadn'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（围嘴） 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 bowels⁶ of the ship, carefully weaving the shrouds⁷ and foldingthe silks of each chute, holding in his hands each time the fateof someone he didn't know.

 

Now, Plumb asks his audience, "Who'spacking your parachute?" Everyone has someone who provides whatthey need to make it through the day. Plumb also points out thathe needed many kinds of parachutes when his plane was shot downover enemy territory -- he needed his physical parachute, his mental parachute, his emotional parachute, and his spiritual parachute. He called on all these supports before reachingsafety. 

 

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, to congratulate people on something wonderful that has happened to them, to give a compliment, or just to do something nice for no reason. As you go through this week, this month, and this year, recognize people who pack your parachute sand send them your gratitude.

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