A Concord teacher took to the skies earlier this month, as part of a New Hampshire Department of Education effort to bring awareness to U.S. Army recruitment.
Molly McCrum, who teaches French at Concord High School, joined four other New Hampshire educators on Sep. 28 for a skydiving jump with New Hampshire Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut, as part of an event called Tandem Camp hosted by the Golden Knights, the U.S. Army’s Parachute Team, that brings awareness to the U.S. Army and promotes recruitment efforts.
McCrum, who is in her first year of teaching at Concord High, said she first heard about the opportunity while attending a U.S. Army recruiting event that was held at her previous school, Pembroke Academy, and she decided to apply. She had been skydiving once before, when she was 19 in the early-2000s, through a private company in Arizona, and she knew she wasn’t afraid of heights.
“The experience with the Golden Knights was 100 times the experience I had in Arizona,” McCrum said. “We were in the sky for what felt like a very long time.”
McCrum and Edelblut took the leap alongside Matthew Dee, an English teacher at Pembroke Academy, Christine Clark and Karyn Laird, both administrative assistants at Oyster River High School, and Michael Nicolosi, a school resource officer at Oyster River Middle and High Schools. Dan Morris, the headmaster at Pembroke Academy, did a skydiving jump on the following day.
On Sep. 28, the educators arrived at the Lawrence Municipal Airport in North Andover, Massachusetts at 8:15 a.m., where they were each paired with a soldier from the Golden Knights for a tandem jump. Each of them were weighed, signed a waiver and received some training. At one point the wind picked up and they were worried the jump would be canceled, but the Golden Knights decided to change the spot where they were landing and they were able to proceed.
The educators went up in the plane two at a time, McCrum said. There were eight people in the plane total, including the pilot and co-pilot, two educators, two tandem jumpers and two more jumpers who took photos and videos of the educators as they descended. McCrum said she wasn’t nervous, although she did feel a shock at how cold the air was. McCrum said she was back on the ground by 12:15 p.m.
“It was just really fun, I was smiling really big because I thought ‘it’s so amazing that I’m having this experience,’” McCrum said.
McCrum, who has been teaching high school students for 15 years, says that she encourages her students to explore all their options for after high school, including military service.
“Especially in communities where students have to work hard for what they have, and maybe a private four-year college isn’t an option for them, I’m always open to suggesting that it’s worth checking out the military,” McCrum said.
“The U.S. Army provides students with a number of life-building opportunities, including numerous educational benefits like tuition assistance for postsecondary education, and leadership and career development opportunities, to name a few,” Edelblut said in a statement after the jump. “It was an honor to be here today and skydive with some of our great soldiers who are committed to bettering their academic and career paths while serving as role models for our youth.”