Former POW: 6 Years of Hell Taught Him the Power of Purpose and Prayer
Charlie Plumb, a former United States Navy pilot, spent six years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam.
His CV includes two purple hearts, a presidential citation, 74 successful sorties, over 100 carrier landings, and a stint at Top Gun flying the F-4 Phantom.
On 19 May 1967, during his 75th mission, and days before his tour of duty was set to end, Plumb – call sign “Plumber” – was shot down near Hanoi.
Detained in a 2.4-by-2.4m Communist prison cell, Plumb was tortured.
Fighting a new form of combat, he didn’t just have captors to fend off; he had himself to contend with.
Pinned down by despair and blame, Plumb stayed this way until the reality of Christ’s forgiveness transformed his heart.
Plumb realised that, like acid that destroys the vessel from within, unforgiveness was slowly destroying him.
Plumb credited this great awakening to scripture verses and patriotic quotes passed surreptitiously around by prisoners.
Recently marking Remembrance Day with YouTube cooking guru Cowboy Kent Rollins, Plumb, said,
“All this bitterness within me. All this vitriol within me. I wasn’t hurting the enemy. I was killing myself.”
Forgiveness is a “great Christian principle, of course, but it’s also a survival principle.”
“It’s a great liberating feeling, when you can forgive — not just the people that harmed you — but forgive yourself.”
Rising to the Challenge
When a pilot is shot down, they “blame everybody else.”
You blame others “for the problems, and you start feeling sorry for yourself. You think that you have only no control of your destiny,” Plumb said.
The truth is, “You still have total control of your destiny. It’s not what’s around you that makes a difference, it’s your decisions about what surrounds you.”
Quoting Romans 8:28, Plumb added,
“Adversity is a horrible thing to waste. Within every challenge in life, there’s some kind of an opportunity.”
Holding onto God’s promises to meet us in that trial and get us through it “is a test of faith. The good news is, it works.”
“I pray a lot,” Plumb told Rollins.
“I really believe that there was some kind of master plan. I may never know what it is, but there’s a plan for the challenge that I am facing now.”
“There’s an opportunity in there somewhere; there’s a purpose, there’s a reason why I’m going through this.”
The test is staying power: seeing the challenges through long enough to find out what that opportunity and purpose is.
Plumb’s achievements during his internment in North Vietnam include the role of chaplain to the POWs, and excelling in ‘underground communications’.
Plumb also emphasises the importance of fellowship – being connected to other prisoners, he has said, was “vital.”
“Sometimes you wonder if you’re alive or dead.”
On National Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Recognition Day, former POW Charlie Plumb recalls his experience when he was held against his will for 2,103 days.
MORE: https://t.co/VYUNaMl61x #MorningInAmerica pic.twitter.com/pGYx8CaMI7
— NewsNation (@NewsNation) September 15, 2023
“When in solitary confinement, sometimes you wonder if you’re alive or dead. Somebody tapping on a wall reminded you, you weren’t alone,” he recounted.
Life Lessons
Other than offering Gospel-centric motivational talks, which range from real estate conferences to TV spots and podcasts, Plumb is also an author.
The pilot who became a POW wrote in his 1973 book, I’m No Hero, that his ‘confinement in prison was spiritually beneficial.’
‘I was,’ he explained, ‘given an opportunity that few men have – the time to pause, to reflect, and to establish priorities.’
‘Stripped of all my material wealth, the only beacon I could hone in on was my faith in an unchanging God.’
Challenges for Plumb continued, even after his release. Anne, his wife, had filed for divorce.
Plumb said that although he’d made a lot of plans for them, little known to him, they would be no longer relevant.
Still optimistic despite his letters not being received, he found out about the divorce from a chaplain, and later his parents.
Concluding, Plumb wrote,
‘My secret to enduring six years of hell is really not a secret.’
He then referenced self-discipline, and a love for the United States, its people, and freedoms.
Above all, though, he wrote, ‘I had faith in an omniscient God, knowing that His will would be done.’
‘I never doubted that I could persevere; I simply trusted God’s promise to answer my prayers.’
___
Image courtesy of Medium.
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