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Angels Are Real OR I Shouldn't Be Here To Tell You About It :)

In 1967 I retuned from my 3rd "Tour" of duty in Vietnam to our Homeport in San Francisco Bay & almost immediately we began to prepare our Carrier USS Hancock for the next deployment & being a vessel that is about 50% fuel & ammunition, the crew must be extremely  proficient as Fire Fighters, which required us to fly to San Diego California for Fire Fighting School at North Island to get "Qualified" once a year. So it was my turn to go.  So the ship sent us over to NAS Alameda  (across the Bay from San Francisco) where the ship's twin engine COD (Carrier Onboard Delivery) aircraft. Counting Aircrew there were a half dozen of Sailors inside. I was seated next to the 'Port Hole' window next to the starboard engine & couldn't see much but the starboard engine & a slice of the ground? We were flying "fat dumb & happy" UNTIL! I looked out the 'port hole' & saw the engine completely engulfed in flame with parts of the engine falling away? We were flying over the desert near NAS Lemore (Naval Attack Aircraft Base). Wasn't much point in panicking in the small compartment with the Pilot & Co-Pilot in calm control. I had complete trust in the Naval Aviators to control this 'Dead Duck' situation. They attempted to blow the fire out by going into a steep dive & turning the COD upside down! I was still a "Heathen" then, so I didn't pray, didn't think about loved ones or nothing? I watched the desert rapidly approaching, so much so, that the Cactus & Jack Rabbits were becoming more & more visible. I remember thinking "So This Is What Dying Feels Like"?  I just waited for the thud & complete darkness :) Nothing but an act of God could have rescued us? And that is exactly what happened! The Aviators got the craft back upright, probably a few hundred feet above the runway and we came to a smoking wreck on the runway with "Crash & Smash" Trucks hosing us down while all of us bailed out & ran for our lives! All safe & sound :) Years later when the Lord of the Heavenly Host.. The Great I AM, did an intervention during the Persian Gulf War. I knew it was Him flying along with me instead of being a bleaching skeleton in the desert :)