-----Original Message-----
From: Eddie Aaron  [mailto:edaaron@texas.net]
Sent: Friday, January 18, 2002 5:59  AM
To: Mike Griffith
Subject: Fw: Just sending a Parachute  your way..........
 
 
Subject: Just sending a Parachute your way..........
Parachute 
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 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.  I am sending you this as my way of thanking you for your  part in packing my parachute !!!    And I hope you will send it  on to those who have helped pack yours! 
Sometimes, we wonder why friends  keep forwarding jokes to us without writing a word, maybe this could explain:  When you are very busy, but still want to keep in 
touch, guess what you do -     --you forward jokes. And to let you know that you are still  remembered, you are still important, you are still loved, you are still cared  for, 
guess what you get? --- A forwarded joke. 
So my friend, next  time if you get a joke, don't think that been sent just another forwarded joke,  but that you've been thought of today and your friend on the other 
end of  your computer wanted to send you a smile.