During the Second World War, I was a Navy pilot. I flew night fighters which required my operating them alone and usually many miles from my carrier.
One night I was returning from a combat mission in the Pacific. My immediate problem was to find my carrier before I ran out of gasoline. I knew the carrier was somewhere on the fringes of a hurricane, but I could not pinpoint it because I had not been given any navigation information before taking off. The flight had been a difficult one, and I had used every possible minute that I could spare to get a clearer spiritual understanding of man's true place.
Without warning, my engine stopped. Before I had time to do anything these words from the Bible came to me (Deut. 33:27): "Underneath are the everlasting arms." This was the only spiritual thought that did come to me during this crisis, but it was enough. As I lost altitude I went through my emergency procedure and sent out a radio distress signal, although I had no way of knowing if anyone would hear it. My position was unknown; so I could not report where I was going down.
