Rule 39

There's no such thing as coincidence."

 

~ Leroy Jethro Gibbs, NCIS ~

 

"Your equipment will never fail you. You might make a mistake, but your equipment will never fail."

 

~ Brent W. ~ 

 

 

Easily one of our favorite crime series is NCIS. Thanks to streaming networks like Netflix and Hulu, we've watched every single episode of NCIS, in order...twice. And while we've loved the cast changes along the way, we love the early days with Leroy Jethro Gibbs the most (and Tony and Ziva, of course). 

 

If you've watched even a fraction of NCIS episodes starring Mark Harmon as Gibbs, you know Gibbs has rules. He has a lot of rules and they're all numbered. In fact, even in more recent years the characters reference the numbered rules of their fearless former leader, Jethro Gibbs. The most famous of all the rules is Rule 39: "There's no such thing as coincidence." And man, has that little rule ever solved a myriad of cases. But for us, Rule 39 may have easily saved a friend from serious injury, or even death.

 

A couple years ago, we ventured south to a state where I once lived to celebrate an anniversary of a department where I once worked. It was a wonderful event with vendors, wine, dancing, and catching up with friends. In the midst of that event, we ran across a man I had worked with on several occasions. He's famous in that department for his rope and climbing skills. In fact, I believe he has over 80 years of combined experience in rope rescue, climbing, etc. He's climbed numerous mountains and walls, rescued countless people with his rope skills, and teaches what he preaches on a regular basis. He's a pro. He's an expert. In a rescue situation, there is no person I'd rather have rigging the gear that was going to hoist me to safety. 

 

I hadn't seen this man in years, and to say we were close friends would be a stretch, but we definitely shared a mutual warm respect and admiration. It was fun catching up. In the midst of all this catching up over a micro brew and the telling of a famous mountain-climbing story, my wife happened to mention she had always wanted to try repelling.  Our friend's eyes lit up as he said, "I believe I can make that happen for you." To make a fairly long story short, he gave us coordinates to a place to meet him the following day, and we did as instructed.

 

The following morning, Gina beaming with nervousness and excitement, we met our friend who began to offer Gina instructions about the harness, the rope, the various hardware, how she'd be perfectly safe, etc, etc. I myself have done a little repelling and was a trained rope technician, so I just nodded my head in agreement as our friend set the stage for Gina to fulfill a dream.

 

While going through the instructions, our friend told Gina, "You have nothing to fear from your equipment. I've been teaching this stuff for years and I tell everyone the exact same thing. People make mistakes, but your gear will never fail you...ever." And with that, while standing on the ground, he hooked the rigging to his rescue belt and fell back to demonstrate to Gina how secure the entire system was. It failed. His rescue belt, while not rated for repelling, is perfectly capable of withstanding plenty of weight and tension. As he landed on his back (remember, only from standing), we thought he was joking, but seeing the color drain from his face at the reality of what had just happened made it clear this was no joke.

 

Upon examination, we determined that the mechanism on his rescue belt where you secured a carabiner for hanging or descending or whatever, had come completely apart. Seemingly a manufacturing issue, although he'd been using the same belt for a long time. No harm. No foul. Right? Wrong.

 

On a regular basis, while doing training exercises, our friend used this belt and rigging to hang off of bridges or buildings while inspecting trainee's riggings and safety measures. Hanging....by a belt...off a bridge. A failure in that situation would have clearly caused debilitating injury and probably death. See where I'm going with Rule 39?

 

Discovering the failure of his belt while doing an on-ground demonstration most likely saved his life, because the next time he used it would have likely been at a much greater altitude. And why did it happen like this and not while hanging from a 6-story building? 

Okay, so to be fair you can chase this rabbit down the hole all the way to "because I was born," but let's reel it in a little. It happened this way because Gina and I decided to take a trip to a cool event to see some friends. It happened this way because we just happened to be at said event at a certain place and time to run in to this friend. It happened because we told a great story which prompted Gina to ask about repelling, which led to an invitation to get to repel at the hands of a true expert. It happened this way because of thousands of small decisions and events on both sides which led us to be at that one place where a man discovered his equipment failed...on the ground... not in the air.

I'm not saying it's because of us his life may have been saved. I'm saying these circumstances, which can be traced back as far as you'd like, likely did. But it gets better. How many more lives have been saved or injuries prevented because this highly experienced man learned something important that day? I'll bet the speech about equipment failure isn't part of the repertoire any longer, and I'll bet everyone (expert and trainee alike) all check their gear just one more time. And that check includes looking for cracks or flaws...things you take for granted.

Here's what we know and why this event was so important. Everything happens for a reason. Every single thing you do or think, every decision you make, hurls you toward something. And even the slightest change in plan, or a decision changed from Plan A to Plan B, changes the outcome. And the exciting part? We don't even know what that outcome might be. So really, don't overthink it. It's all happening randomly at a pace we can't comprehend, all leading to something that may be part of a plan. We can't be sure. But we can be sure about one thing.

Rule 39: There's no such thing as coincidence.

P.S. It should be noted that all equipment issues were resolved and Gina did get to repel that day...twice. It was a magical day full of dreams fulfilled and lessons learned.