A Fifty-Cent Item
Enemy fighters came in waves as copilot Vince Mazza wrestled with the controls of his B-24 bomber. The pilot had been killed moments before and the aircraft damaged by an attacking Messerschmitt-109. Crewmen were still trying to remove the dead pilot from the controls as Mazza fought to avoid colliding with other ships nearby. Somehow he kept the battered B-24 in formation, lumbering toward the target: Misburg, Germany.
Suddenly, a 20mm cannon shell exploded in the forward section of the aircraft, destroying the nose turret and blowing out the plexiglass around it. Through this gaping hole a 200 mile-per-hour wind whipped through the interior of the B-24 at minus sixty-seven degrees. Wounded and frostbitten crewmen moved back in the ship to get out of the blast. The pilot stayed at the controls but had increasing difficulty seeing. He felt like his eyes were freezing. He couldn’t go down to a warmer altitude because that would further expose his aircraft to fighter attack. Groping around the cockpit, his hand touched a pair of plastic goggles, which he put on over his eyes. He could finally see again to fly the airplane. Vince Mazza forever felt that this fifty-cent item saved his life and the lives of his crew.265
That pair of goggles was probably on someone’s checklist, and, even though such gear had little intrinsic value, someone had to make sure it was all there. This faithful attention to detail is what saved these men. A Marine 1st sergeant once told me, “If you take care of the details, the big picture will take care of itself.” Some who pride themselves on being “big picture” people might disagree with this assertion. However, I believe it is valid in the sense that any big task can be broken down into detailed action steps. Success comes in faithfully attending to those small steps. Long ago a little boy took five barley loaves and two small fish with him on an outing to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee. This boy’s faithful attention to detail was glorified by Jesus in one of his greatest miracles.
Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things.
—Matthew 25:21
B-24 Liberator bomber. (U.S. Dept. of Defense)
B-17 Flying Fortress bomber. (U.S. Dept. of Defense