In a world where everyone is moving so fast and furious, it is difficult to slow down and get to know anyone anymore. We walk in the same whitewashed walls together day in and day out, but do we really know one another?

This story is a story of a man I came to know as the “lucky janitor.” He told me throughout his life he was just always in the right place at the right time and was lucky to survive. One day, I found myself talking to the janitor.

Although, we had little in common that could have sparked the amazement that triggered my curiosity. His story started in the Far East remote jungle of Laos.

The Lucky Janitor was originally a military intelligence officer in the 1960’s during the Vietnam War. He told me the story of how he saved the Capital Vientiane Airport in Laos. The United States had a strategic headquarters in Vientiane to hold off the Communist regime seeping in from Northern Vietnam and China.

The Lucky Janitor was making his routine perimeter drive on his motorcycle around Vientiane one early morning. As he was riding, he noticed five men in long raincoats walking vigorously towards the Capital Airport.

As the raincoats swayed back and forth, the Lucky Janitor caught a glimpse of something yellow-ish brown under one of the men’s raincoat.

At that time, the Laotian army was using American rifles that were all black, and the Communist enemies were using Russian rifles with a tannish wooden buttstock end. It became clear to the Lucky Janitor that these men were five Communist soldiers that had infiltrated the military airport base.

The Lucky Janitor rode to the nearest police outpost and waved his seal. He has been issued this seal so that he could recruit citizens to assist him in any situation he found essential. “You three! Follow me! Bring guns! Quick!”

They ran out to the hangers where the five communist soldiers were headed towards.

“Stop! This is the military police. Stop, or we will shoot,” he shouted.

Not only did the raincoat men kept on going, they started to run and shoot. The Lucky Janitor and the police fired back and shot at the five men directly, but the men would not fall and kept on walking forward. The shots fired alerted the rest of the armies in the base, and the Laotian soldiers in the base came and shot down the five communist soldiers. Afterwards, they realized that the raincoat men had bombs strapped to their chests that could have blown up the base.

The Lucky Janitor is a hero, yet no one knows his name. People like the Lucky Janitor are all around us with stories just waiting to be unfolded. We just have to our eyes open to them. Who knows how many “Lucky Janitors” we could have passed by?