Mount Olive High School rocketeers blast off to great season thanks to Picatinny donation

FLANDERS, N.J. - A grant from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command (DEVCOM) Armaments Center’s Picatinny STEM program has helped propel the Mount Olive High School Air Force JROTC Rocketry program to its best season ever.

Thanks to a $4,000 donation, the amateur rocketeers and high schoolers thrived in 2026. Under the oversight of CMSgt. Robert S. Bedell and SMSgt. Nathan D. Kruithof, both Ret., the team used $3,460.14 of the funds to purchase high-grade materials and testing data tools required to push the program’s limits.

Teams are scored on their rocket’s performance, how high it travels and how long it stays airborne. Two of Mount Olive's five teams finished with average scores less than a single point apart, breaking the school record with an average score of 34, zero being flawless. The two teams both ranked in the top 200 of roughly 1,200 teams competing in the American Rocketry Challenge framework, and they both qualified for national championship consideration, falling just barely short of the threshold needed to make Nationals.

While this funding gave the high schoolers the backing they needed, the Armaments Center itself stays hands-off with the rocketry program, though it does host a tour for freshmen every year. The junior cadets must do all the work on their own, according to David Magidson, Chief System Engineer for CPE A&E and President of the AFJROTC Booster Club.

"The best quality is how they come together to build and refine their rockets throughout the process," Magidson noted. "This is a great leadership activity through which they explore teamwork and form something the entire team has designed, discussed, and put together."