Faith at Full Throttle • followHIM Favorites • Feb. 9-15 • Come Follow Me

5 min

•Feb 5, 20262 months ago

Summary

A followHIM Favorites episode featuring a spiritual narrative about Colonel Gordon Weed, a Vietnam-era pilot who received divine guidance to prevent his wingman from ejecting during an in-flight emergency. The story illustrates themes of faith, trust, and following divine direction during crisis, connected to the week's Come Follow Me lesson on Moses chapter 8 and Genesis chapters 6-11.

Insights

Divine guidance often comes as subtle spiritual impressions that may seem illogical in the moment but prove critical to survival and safety
Trust and obedience in crisis situations require surrendering control and following another's lead, paralleling spiritual faith principles
Mentorship and presence matter more than explanation—sometimes people need guidance and reassurance rather than complete understanding
Courage and faith are demonstrated through calm decision-making under extreme pressure, not the absence of fear
Personal testimony and narrative are powerful teaching tools for communicating abstract spiritual principles to modern audiences

Trends

Faith-based storytelling in podcasting using real-world historical narratives to illustrate spiritual principlesIntegration of military and aviation history with religious education contentNarrative-driven religious education moving beyond traditional scripture study to include contemporary applicationsPersonal testimony compilation as a content format for faith communitiesMetaphorical use of crisis survival stories to teach spiritual resilience and trust

Topics

Divine guidance and spiritual impressionsFaith during crisis and adversityMilitary aviation historyLatter-day Saint theology and practiceMentorship and leadership under pressureTrust and obedience in faithVietnam War era military experiencesSpiritual impressions and revelationPilot training and emergency proceduresCome Follow Me curriculumPersonal testimony and narrativeA-37 Dragonfly aircraftAnti-aircraft artillery combatEjection seat safety systemsRefueling systems in military jets

People

Colonel Gordon Weed

Vietnam and WWII era pilot whose spiritual experience during an in-flight emergency forms the episode's central narra...

John

Co-host of followHIM podcast; compiled stories in Supersonic Saints book series about Latter-day Saint pilots

Hank

Co-host of followHIM podcast who introduces and responds to the Colonel Gordon Weed story

Dr. Mike Caudill

Featured guest on the full followHIM podcast episode this week discussing the story of Noah

Quotes

"He walks with God, as also his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

Moses 8:27 (scripture reference)

"Just follow me. I'm going to take you all the way down to the runway. Just watch me."

Colonel Gordon Weed (paraphrased)

"Stay with me. Stay with me. Okay, now I'm going to come where you can see me. Focus on me. Focus on me. I'll take you all the way home."

Hank (applying the story's lesson)

"It has airplanes, courage, and airplanes."

Hank

"I just love the fact he said, just follow me. I am going to take you all the way down to the runway."

Hank

Full Transcript

Welcome to Follow Him Favorites. This is where John and I share a single story to go with each week's lesson. John, we are in Moses chapter 8, Genesis chapters 6 through 11. This week, you can come follow me. I know you have a perfect story. I know you're excited about it, and I want to hear it. There's a verse in Moses 8 verse 27. It talks about Noah. It says, He walked with God, as also his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And just this imagery of walking with God. Life is hard, but boy, when somebody's walking with you. And Hank, I love this story because it has three things that make a story great. It has airplanes, courage, and airplanes. Here's what I love about this story. I met Colonel Gordon Weed, actually got to sit in his living room and talk with him and his wife. He was about my dad's age, went to high school with my dad, but he didn't know and my dad was not a member, Gordon was. But he flew into World War II and later he flew in Vietnam. Your airplane lovers out there look up an A37 Dragonfly. It's a Cessna, but it's side by side, and this thing is loaded for bear. Well, he is in this jet. He's got a wingman. He hears on the radio, sir, I'm on fire. And he looks over and the front of this jet is all flames. The other jet, it's in flames. Gordon Weed has this incredibly powerful spiritual impression come over him that says, don't let him eject. He's calling to the other pilot saying, oh, wait a minute. He says, I'm saying things. I'm going to get court-martialed. Oh, wait, you're not smoking. And he said, what a stupid thing to say. You're not smoking. I just make any sense. But he said, I knew I had to keep him in there. This wingman said, Roger, that's sir, but it's getting hot as heck in here. Check your bleed air, your bleed valve. He's telling him all this stuff. He just knew he had to keep him in there. They could not figure out in these seconds. This is happening really fast. Where would the flame be coming from the front because the fuel tanks are in the wings? And anyway, a lot goes on in this. But finally, the flame goes out. He pulls alongside him. The guy's complete windshield is frosted over with smoke, except this little part in the corner. He says, where can you see? I can see out the corner. I love how pilots do this with their hands. Gordon Weed flies and gets where he can see him and basically says, walk with me. Follow me. I'm going to take you all the way down to the runway. Just watch me. He flies this guy down out of this one little thing he can see. Yeah. And there's a picture of that spot, the only spot where he could see. So you just follow me and he takes him all the way down to the runway where his wingman is able to land. The end of the story that's so interesting, why couldn't I let him eject? Well, as they determined later, had that canopy popped off as part of the ejection, all those flames would have gone right on the pilot for that second or half a second before his ejection chair fires and he shoots out of the jet. What they found out was in some jets, there's this long tube that's for refueling. Somehow an anti-aircraft artillery had hit the refueling tube. That's where the flames were coming from. He felt like the spirit told him, don't let him eject. It was over a bad place, some enemy territory, I think. I just love the fact he said, just follow me. I am going to take you all the way down to the runway. John, there's so many ways to apply this story. We turn to the Lord and say, it is getting bad in here. And the Lord said, stay with me. Stay with me. Okay, now I'm going to come where you can see me. Focus on me. Focus on me. I'll take you all the way home. Take you all the way home. Just focus right on me. I know you can't see anything else. I know you're scared. It has airplanes, courage, and airplanes. And airplanes. That's beautiful. John, if I remember right, you wrote two books about these kind of stories, these airplanes and these Latter-day Saint pilots. They're called Supersonic Saints. This is in the second one? Yeah, I loved it so much. It's the first chapter in the second one. And I didn't write these. I just compiled them. These awesome, courageous, faithful pilots wrote them. But they're like heroes of mine. Don't you love this story? Stay with me. I'm taking you home. That's beautiful. Supersonic Saints, too. I think I have my copy. I'm going to go look at it again. We hope you'll join us on our full podcast. It's called Follow Him. You can get it wherever you get your podcasts. We're with Dr. Mike Caudill this week. This for me was a life-changing episode. They all are, but Mike and I go way back. He's a close friend of mine. And what he does with the story of Noah, honestly, John, changed it forever for me. Absolutely. We hope you'll join us there. And then come back next week. We'll do another Follow Him favorites.