Twenty-four students from Georgia High School High Tech took a tour of Fort Stewart, Ga., Feb. 13.
Georgia High School High Tech is a community-based program providing youth with a connection to academic and career development experiences. During the tour of Fort Stewart, students learned about opportunities in military service.
The GHSHT program tour consisted of students from Portal High School in Bulloch County, and three schools from Chatham County, which were Groves High School, Windsor Forest High School and Islands High School.
Soldiers of the 3rd Infantry Division Artillery hosted the tour, which has been an annual event on Fort Stewart for several years.
“This event gets students in high school the ability to have a realistic idea of what Army Soldiers go through on a daily basis”, said Capt. Alexander Kraft, DIVARTY, officer in charge of the tour. “This gives them a more hands on rather than simply just instructional.”
The tour included stops at the Squad Advanced Marksmanship trainer, the Call for Fire facility and then concluded with the students eating lunch with some 3rd ID Soldiers at the Marne Bistro Dining Facility.
During the SAM-T event, students got to see some of the weapons that Soldiers use and qualify on, which included the M4A1 Carbine Rifle, a Glock 19 and a M9 Beretta. After the students were introduced to the weapon systems, they were given a hands-on safety class on the weapons.
“This is a great experience for the students,” said Staff Sgt. Randall Cotton, a non-commissioned officer assigned to the tour. “We were able to teach them the fundamentals and some of the basic Army skills, like shooting.”
When the familiarization period of the weapons tour was over, the students were able to shoot the weapons through a simulated program to get the full effect of shooting a military weapon.
“This was a good, realistic experience and gave good insight [into] what Soldiers would go through when they train”, said Christie Giles, a teacher and chaperon for the students.
During the next stop of the tour, students visited the CFF facility.
At the CFF facility, Soldiers taught the students how to coordinate points on a map and call for field artillery rounds at a particular location to support troops on the ground.
During the demonstration, the students saw a screen where they were able to see the target and saw, based off of their ability to plot points on a map, if their call for fire was successful.
The students said they learned how to plot coordinates in school, and it was really cool to actually see how that would be useful down the road.
“We always love to expand knowledge of students and future Soldiers, so we can set them up for success down the road to increase not only their proficiency, but the Army as a whole,” said Sgt. Travis Flynn, a fire support specialist, 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery Regiment, DIVARTY.
During lunch, Dog-Faced Soldiers talked to students about what it is like being in the Army and answered any questions that the students might have had.
“With this program, the students are able to have a more hands-on approach, rather than instructional, which helps builds relationships,” Kraft said.
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