BLACKSBURG, Va. – It was a tense moment before the Virginia Tech spring football game last month when a parachuter landed on the scoreboard.
Remarkably, he was unharmed, but the incident quickly gained national attention, giving an Army veteran a unique platform to share his powerful message.
“I knew this was going to get big. I didn’t realize it was going to get that big,” said retired Army Master Sergeant Pasha Palanker, recalling what went through his mind as he hung from the Lane Stadium scoreboard.
Palanker’s now-famous landing in Blacksburg was not the first time the two-time Purple Heart recipient had faced a challenging situation.
“Every time, even though it was painful early on, something amazing came out on the other end, and that’s what I was thinking about,” he said.
Palanker medically retired from the Army in 2015, but he didn’t leave his passion for free-fall jumping behind.
“There’s something when you jump, all your thoughts stay on the plane, and you’re just at peace, so it was an escape for me,” he said.
But after 17 years of service and two injuries overseas, Palanker found there were some things he could not escape. He eventually sought treatment for mental health.
“When I hit rock bottom, I had this need to share what I was going through in order to reach other veterans who are struggling like I did,” Palanker said.
Following his treatment, Palanker became a public speaker, advocating for mental health and resilience. Now, his cause is in the spotlight.
“I’ll never know the amount of veterans or people who were struggling who were reached through this experience, but I know it’s a lot, and I’m grateful that it gives meaning to what I was going through while I was struggling, and it also kind of gives meaning to the Jumbotron experience,” he said.
When asked if fans can expect to see him at a game this season at Lane Stadium, Palanker replied, “For sure. I know the team is scheduled to jump there in the first week of October. I don’t know if it’ll be me, but that would be a pretty cool story.”
Palanker has made remarkable landings in more ways than one and continues to take the leap to make a difference.
“It’s important how we face our adversity and our struggles. Life is not what happens to us; it’s how we deal with it. It would have been easy for me to hide under a rock right after this happened and let it blow over, but that’s not who I am. Instead of running from it, I chose to face it and turn it into something beautiful,” he said.
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