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I have recently read the book Hearts of Courage by John Tippets. This book is a story about actual events, and really a great piece of family history for anyone related to the Tippets. If after reading the synopsis below, you would like more information you should visit John’s website at: http://johntippets.com.
They were in The Hands of God…
On a cold January day in 1943, Joseph Tippets was flying home to his beloved wife Alta and their son John. Leaving the Seattle airport along with four other passengers and the pilot, Joe was glad he had been able to say good-bye to his mother in Ogden, Utah one last time and spend time with family over this Christmas holiday. Being president of the small branch in Anchorage, Joe also spent time with some of the LDS General Authorities in Salt Lake City. Overall, it had been a meaningful two weeks.
At home Alta had done her best to make the birth of the Savior a special and spiritual time. Two young soldiers in Anchorage and a friend helped put up a small spruce tree and decorate it. With a sprinkling of gifts and a toy car for John and later, several friends came by bringing something to share for a potluck dinner. “It would have been a dreary Christmas if it hadn’t been for the soldier boys and our friends from Church,” Alta said.
Air travel was always risky, but especially now during winter conditions. Now, several hours into the flight Joe felt a sudden jolt as the left engine of the Lockheed 10-B shut down. With the weight of frozen ice on the wings, the right engine couldn’t maintain altitude and suddenly the plane was spiraling towards earth and a bleak, cold Alaskan mountainside. Pilot Harold Gillam made one last desperate radio call and then focused all his energy on the crash, hoping to keep all alive. At 1,800 feet the snow cleared briefly to reveal an open spot on a mountainside so he switched off the right engine and held the aircraft’s nose high, hoping to stall just before impact.
Hearts of Courage is the account of the survival of four passengers and the harrowing journey made by Brother Tippets and another passenger through Alaskan snow and ice, hoping to find civilization and prompt a rescue. Told in Joe’s own words by son John Tippets, the tenacity and courage of the two men is a story of real heroism against impossible odds… the stuff legend is made of. The miraculous events of those two weeks—the ordeal of survival, the ultimate rescue—are told with boldness and honesty. Alta refused to believe her husband was dead, long after the search had been abandoned, praying to a merciful Heavenly Father and still feeling connected to her eternal companion. Her devotion and Joe’s stalwart bravery are the soul and spirit of Hearts of Courage.
Ultimately, everyone involved will learn that prayer is powerful, God loves his children, and a man can push on through impossible odds as long as he has faith. It is Hearts of Courage that brings a remarkable conclusion to the Gillam crash of ’43.
And you will believe a man or woman can overcome anything if their heart is true and their faith is strong, and that the Lord will provide, even in the frozen tundra of the north.
“ . . . a source of inspiration to every Latter-Day Saint and to many otherswho believe in a God who hears and answers the prayers of the faithful.”
– Deseret News, Church Section, March 27, 1943