Parachute is a small town, and that close-knit feel extends into the halls of Grand Valley High School, where this year’s graduating class totals about 80 students.

Among them are two best friends, Ean Olmstead and Craig Cotter, who have each chosen to attend military academies as they begin their college journeys.

Since meeting in their fifth grade homeroom, they’ve been in similar classes and have similar interests, leading to a friendship that is sure to last a lifetime, no matter where it leads them. 

Cotter will attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where he plans to study civil engineering. Olmstead is headed to the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs to pursue a degree in aerospace engineering. 

“It’s been a dream to go to space,” Olmstead explained. “Hopefully I’ll go, or at least build something that goes to space.”

Cotter said that West Point has one of the original civil engineering programs, so he knows it’s a great program. 

“You can see civil engineering everywhere,” he said. “It’s in the roads, it’s the buildings. I’m hoping to come back after getting my degree and putting a roundabout in where you come in off I-70 west.”

The two friends supported each other throughout the application process. 

“He’d call me at 9:30 at night and ask me interview questions,” Cotter said. “Or he’d call and say, “hey I just did like 75 pushups, can you do that?” And I’d say, alright, let me go do 75 pushups.”

Olmstead said sometimes he’d get calls from Cotter about where he was doing homework. 

“I would get calls of, ‘hey, I’m at your house doing homework,'” he said. “I’m not even home, but he’s there, doing homework.”

Outside of classes, they run track, because both like to run. Olmstead also played soccer. 

“In sophomore year, I bugged the athletic director about having a soccer team,” he said. “Finally, after bugging him a lot, he said if I could find teammates, we could have a soccer team. So we have a soccer team now.”

Cotter plays the trumpet and has been in marching band and jazz band. He was also the conductor for those bands when they would play.

“I think I like jazz band better,” he said. “The music is cooler and it’s a smaller class, so you get more free time to play freestyle.”

They’re also part of a lot of clubs on campus: Key Club, National Honor Society, Camping and Olmstead took a certified nursing assistant class. 

“He’s the president of Key Club and I’m the vice president of Key Club,” Olmstead said. “I’m the president of National Honor Society and he’s the vice president of National Honor Society.”

They combine a lot of the things the two clubs do so they’re able to do bigger things for the school, like a blood drive, cooking breakfast for teachers during Teacher Appreciation Week and using a 3D printer to make each teacher a tiny wet floor sign that has encouraging phrases.

“We make a joke out of it sometimes, like ‘hold on, let me ask the president of Key Club, hey president, is that okay?'”,” Olmstead said. “He’ll go, ‘hold on, let me ask my president, hey president of NHS, is that okay?'” 

The two are looking forward to the brotherhood they’ll find at West Point and the Air Force Academy, the feeling of being a part of something greater than themselves. 

“My grandfather was also in the Army, so I’m kind of starting an Army lineage type of thing,” Cotter said. “My family has been really supportive of it and my dad has been keeping me going.”

Olmstead said his family was also quite supportive, since his older brother is a part of the Air Force as well and they’re quite happy he got into the Academy. 

“The rest of the community has been super supportive as well,” he said. “They’re really proud of us.”

Military academies are quite selective on who gets in and it’s said to be one of the most grueling college acceptance processes. For two boys in Parachute who are also best friends, it’s amazing for both to be accepted. 

“We talked about it when we got accepted, that we’ll come back together afterwards and talk about everything,” Cotter said. “Although I’m sure we’ll call each other all the time and talk about what happened that week at school.”

Military academies put students in squadrons, which are headed by seniors and have juniors, sophomores and freshmen in them, becoming families inside the bigger community there. 

“It’s a very student-oriented type of leadership there,” Olmstead said. “There’s a lot of skills there that we won’t necessarily be taught at other colleges.”

Even though they’ll be going to separate academies, they know the other is there for them if they need them.

“Our competitiveness was helpful because we knew the other had to do the same thing to get into the academies,” Cotter said. “It’s the thought of, ‘if I can do it, you can do it.'”