Cullman County School Board representative Shane Rusk boards a plane Wednesday morning at the Cullman Regional Airport.

VINEMONT — Cullman County School Board member Shane Rusk was nearly speechless after his first-ever tandem skydive experience Wednesday. “I can’t put it into words,” he said. “It was phenomenal.”

Rusk was one of eight people from Cullman to jump out of an airplane Wednesday as a show of support for healthcare workers. The “Salute to Heroes” event was organized by the local Army recruiting office, which paired service men and women and local residents for tandem skydiving with members of the United States Army Special Operations Command (USASOC).

Sgt. First Class Justin Campbell said they wanted to join the military’s show of gratitude for healthcare workers during the coronavirus pandemic. “The Air Force did flyovers,” he said. “Being Army, we one upped them by jumping out of the planes.”

Campbell coordinated with SkyDive Alabama at the Cullman airport and USASOC to arrange the event and recruited people from the community, including Rusk, to participate.

“If you’re going to jump out of an airplane, why not do it with the best?” said Rusk. He said he wanted to participate because he’s a big supporter of the military and wanted to highlight it as a career choice for students coming out of Cullman County.

“I’m looking forward to it; it’s going to be great to do it,” he said.

The jumps were scheduled to start at 9 a.m., but were delayed due to cloud coverage. As they waited, they received instructions and tips from Sean O’Toole, a Tandem Master with approximately 4,800 jumps under his belt.

O’Toole explained how he came to jump out of airplanes. “I kind of fell into it,” he joked. He joined the Army intending to be a parachute technician – maintaining the equipment – but learned he’d also have to complete a jump. “I fell in love with it,” he said.

Finally, around 12:30 p.m. the clouds cleared and O’Toole and the other members of the USASOC, based out of Fort Bragg, N.C., strapped up their tandem jumpers and took them up two at a time, 14,000 feet – about 2 and quarter miles from terra firma.

Rusk, who was one of the first two to jump, said when the time came to jump from the airplane, he didn’t think about it. “It’s like ‘one, two, three, go’ and you go,” he said.

The skydivers traveled at a rate of about 120 mph until their shoots deployed and they glided down for three to five minutes and landed back at the airport.

We traveled through some clouds,” said Rusk. “That was crazy. I think that’s the closest I’ll ever be to be like a bird.”

Prior to take off, O’Toole’s advice to the jumpers was, “Just enjoy the fall.”

Rusk took his advice. “It was a thrill,” he said.