Education professionals from across the Southern United States toured Fort Jackson this week as part of an event supported by the Columbia Recruiting Battalion that began Tuesday.

School officials and others who could influence youths to join the Army were greeted by drill sergeants and Soldiers in Training as they visited various installation activities such as Basic Combat Training Museum, the U.S. Army Chaplaincy Center and School, and Engagement Skills Trainer. The group also watched as Soldiers crawled under barbed wire and across an open field as machine guns fired overhead yesterday

Capt. Brandon C. Brim, company commander for the Florence, South Carolina Recruiting Company that is part of the Columbia Recruiting Battalion, said "the purpose of the tour is to bring out our educators, our centers of influences and community advocates and to give them the experience in the day of the life of a Soldiers."

Those educators include teachers, guidance counselors and principles.

The tour gives them a "greater appreciation" of what Soldiers will go through when they join the Army, Brim added.

"We hope that is builds better trust between us as recruiters and recruiting commanders and the school districts," he said.

Joel Vander Horst, Newberry College's Dean of Enrollment Management, visited Fort Jackson for the first time and learned what the school's students went through before attending the institution. The school in Newberry, South Carolina, is attended by many students who have recently left the military and those who will join after they finish school.

Vander Horst said the school has a "rich history" with the military because it is located geographically "an hour from here" and fairly close to Fort Bragg and hosts many Soldiers and their Families.

"At every turn we are seeing something exciting," he said. "I'm fascinated by the history and what the Army does.

"Meeting the Soldiers has been my favorite part so far."

He said he found it exciting because six weeks earlier they were like him not knowing what to expect.

Spc. Alisha Polte with Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 39th Infantry Regiment spoke with Vander Horst and other educators about her time in Basic Combat Training.

The educators asked her what training was like especially how the Night Infiltration Course went.

"NIC was long," she said. "It was really hot. The weather was amazing and really affected everything. It felt really good once it was over. It was really scary (when bullets went over my head) it really reinforced to do what is required and not stand up and get down and crawl your way out."