I always had a picture in the recesses of my mind of the soldier dying for his country. I could see the fireman expiring in a blaze after saving others. Then I saw a banker who saved others and died right before my eyes.
On January 13th 1982 an Air Florida flight crashed off the 14th Street Bridge in Washington DC. It was a bridge I had traveled across many times before during the year I lived in DC. The entire event was being broadcast live and I sat glued to the TV as the big Boeing 737 slid ever so slowly into the swirling ice cold waters of the Potomac River. Only five people out of the 79 that were onboard that flight survived the crash.
Listen To A Talking Cockatiel A wise old man had once told me - listen to a talking cockatiel and you will feel as happy as with .....
Two of those who survived owe their lives to the heroism and selflessness of a 46 year old man named 'Arland D. Williams Jr.' who was a bank examiner. I did not know his name for twenty years after the crash but it is a name I will probably never forget.
Because of the heavy traffic around DC and on the bridge that day, the emergency vehicles were seriously hindered from reaching the scene. In the interim two TV news copters did the best they could to pull the few people who had made it to the surface out of the water. It was noble effort on their part because the wind driven snow was a screaming polar bear closing in on the prey.
Leadership lessons come in many guises. One unforgettable lesson comes from George Washington and his contribution to the most important victory of the Revolutionary .....
I watched in stark amazement as one copter lowered a small life ring to a white haired gentleman in the frozen raging soup. He grabbed the ring but then worked it over to another passenger who was then lifted to safety. The copter returned and once again lowered the ring to the gentleman who pushed it over to another passenger yet again. By the time the copter returned for the third time the distinguished gentleman was slipping beneath the stinging waters never to be seen again on that day.
For weeks I could not get that picture out of my mind, but I didn't want to get it out of my mind. I felt I had witnessed the best example I had seen in my lifetime of perfect and selfless love. I have told this story countless times in my messages as a preacher of the gospel. ......
