By Melanie Patterson

The North Jefferson News



If all goes according to plan, Glenn and Carole Scogin will be voluntarily jumping out of an airplane today. (Update: The Scogins did make a successful jump on July 14.)

“This will mark 50 years since I last jumped,” said Glenn Scogin.

The last time was in August 1957, near the time that he was discharged from his two-year enlistment in the U.S. Army.

Scogin was drafted into an engineering brigade with the 18th Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C.

He went through jump school at Fort Bragg, which required him to make at least one jump a month.

But he hasn’t donned a parachute since 1957.

“This will commemorate the last jump,” he said.

The Scogins, of Gardendale, actually had an appointment last Saturday at the Cullman Airport for their jump, but it got rained out.

They are hoping the weather holds off today so they can finally go on their adventure. But if not, they will again reschedule the trip.

Scogin and his wife have been married 12 years.

“She’s a good sport,” he said. “When I told her I wanted to do it, she said she was going along to keep an eye on me.”

The pair first was exposed to skydiving in April when Carole’s son Eric Hamilton did a tandem jump at the Cullman Airport.

Hamilton’s wife Lacie had bought him the trip as a birthday gift. The Scogins and other relatives accompanied Hamilton on the trip and took photos.

Watching Hamilton jump made Glenn want to do it again, even after five decades since his military days.

“We jumped because it was part of the job,” he said. “Now they do it just for fun.”

“It was in the back of my mind” since her son did the jump, said Carole.

“I like rides. Heights don’t bother me. It’s just kind of been something you think about but don’t think you’ll ever get a chance to do.”

Carole said the jump will probably be over more quickly than she wants it to be.

But it will be just one more adventure to add to her and her husband’s list.

As a civil engineer, Glenn has worked all over the world. He has been in 30 countries.

Carole, who works at Children’s Hospital in Birmingham, has accompanied him on many of those trips, including living almost a year in Thailand.

“I wouldn’t take anything for that experience,” she said. She added that Thailand has two seasons: “Hot and wet, and hot and dry.”

The couple has also been to Australia, Mexico and other countries.

“He told me before we got married, ‘I’m going to put a ring on your finger and I’m going to take you to Australia,’” said Carole. “He did both.”

A few weeks ago, Carole received an email from her husband while she was at work. In the email, he told her he had just bought a motorcycle.

She made Glenn wait for a while on her response.

It finally came: “Buy two helmets.”

The couple, at age “60-something,” is not at all worried about jumping out of an airplane at 14,000 feet, free-falling 10,000 feet at 120 miles per hour, and opening the parachute a mere 4,000 feet from the ground.

“Every day is a gift,” said Carole. “You just enjoy what you’re doing.”