Charlie Plumb, a veteran American fighter pilot, escaped his fighter and managed to survive by using his parachute when the fighter was shot down in the Vietnam War. Although he was taken captive and imprisoned for six years, he came back safely and reunited with his family. One day, he was sitting at a restaurant and a man from another table came over and said,
“You’re Plumb, aren’t you? You flew jet fighters in Vietnam from aircraft carrier Kitty Hawk. I heard that you survived the day the fighter was shot down.”
The man, who knew about his incident in detail, turned out to be a soldier who was on the same aircraft carrier.
“I folded your parachute and put it on your fighter. Did the parachute open well at that time?”
His life was depended on a soldier whom he had passed by without even saying hello because his rank was higher than the soldier’s. As he realized this, he started to see the world differently. If the soldier hadn’t taken care of his parachute, or parachute did not open properly, he would not have been able to survive. Since then, he asks people he meets. “Who is packing your parachute?” He tells us to acknowledge those who help us be alive every day.