I was on my way to Montgomery Alabama for an Air Force 4 day class on Emergency Management. We taxied to the end of the runway, ready for takeoff…then we taxied back to the gate for a maintenance issue. After a while, they announced that the flight was cancelled due to maintenance and we had to de-plane, collect our checked baggage and get in line to be booked on another flight. There were a half a dozen flights to various cities that had connecting flights to Montgomery, but all of them were already over sold. They checked other airlines. They could have gotten me out at 8:00 pm, but there was no connecting flight to Montgomery. After two hours of searching and pleading (both on the phone and in person at the counter), I learned that they could not get me out of Reno until the following day. So, I called the school and they said “don’t bother”. You just can’t miss a full day of a four day class.
I found myself at home by noon, wondering “now what”? My work calendar was empty, as I had blocked myself as out of the office months ago and I couldn’t stay on orders, so I knew that it was back to work I go.
As the full weight of this turn of events sunk in, I realized another point: I would be in town on Friday night, the very night that my dad would be honored at the UNR Boxing home opener. The Air Force Academy would be there, and they were going to make it the first annual Vern Rockswold Memorial boxing tournament.
I only learned that he would be honored on that day just a week before. The class had been booked for months, and there was no way to get out of it without my unit getting a black eye. I had to do my duty…Dad would have been mortified if I didn’t. So, with regret and much gnashing of teeth, I resigned myself to missing it. It took me a few more days to concede that I was supposed to miss it and that this was God’s plan to protect me from the pain, and I thanked Him.
As I pulled up to the airport the morning of departure, I wondered why I wasn’t booked in a more direct fashion. I was scheduled to LA, then Dallas, then Montgomery. There was a flight directly to Dallas that I could have been on and I wondered why SATO booked me this way…
Now, I know. I know that God can do whatever he wants to do. I do wonder if I hadn’t ‘conceded’ to his plan, and thanked Him, would the plane still have broke?
