War Stories on Gratitude
During the Vietnam War, Navy pilot Charles Plumb was shot down and held prisoner for six years in a Vietnamese prison. Today, as a motivational speaker, he often tells the story of one man he met years later at a restaurant.
“I know you!” the man said, walking up as Plumb and his wife were sitting down to dinner. “You used to fly jet fighters off the Kitty Hawk during Vietnam.”
Plumb didn’t recognize him. “How did you know that?” he asked.
“I used to pack your parachute,” the man said.
Plumb still didn’t recognize the man, but he thanked him. “If that chute hadn’t worked when I got shot down,” he said, “I wouldn’t be alive today.”
But that night Plumb couldn’t sleep. “I kept wondering what he might have looked like in a Navy uniform: a white hat, a bib in the back, and bell-bot¬tom trousers. I wondered 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.”
At this point in his lectures, Plumb asks his audience, “Who’s packing your parachute?”
Plumb’s message: Start paying attention to the people who “pack your parachute” today.
Who provides you with what you need to survive every day? Do you recognize them? Do you thank them enough?
Three Things to Do Next
1. Comment: What are the advantages of thanking people we wouldn’t automatically think to thank?
2. Share: If you liked this story share it on your Facebook, Twitter, Blog or Site
3. Thank someone: Think of someone who you may have neglected unknowingly and thank them. It will make a difference in their day.
image courtesy of jeremy burgin
