FORT HOOD, Texas (KXXV) — Thousands of high school students from Dallas, Houston and Central Texas are visiting Fort Hood for the U.S. Army Experience 2026, exploring military careers and participating in basic training drills amid ongoing international conflict in the Middle East.
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The three-day event, running March 25-27, features a Career Expo and a Basic Training Challenge. I spoke with students to ask how they feel about the recruiting push during a time of war.
Rayaell Stewart knew he wanted to join the military when he was young after watching his father serve in the Marines. He still wants to pursue that dream despite the potential of war.
"There's been a lot of protests about it outside of our school. Um, there's a lot of, it's a lot of people talking about what's going on. Um, it's been an ongoing thing of who's right, who's wrong," Stewart said. "Everybody makes a choice and I made the choice of doing what I wanna do... It gives you the drive to, I could be something, I can complete something, I could do something. I can, I can finally put not only myself out there, but my whole team, my platoon, whoever I'm with."
The Basic Training Challenge includes approximately 1,500 student-athletes, including the DeSoto High School Eagles football team. Former drill sergeants from the III Armored Corps lead the students to show them what the first day of Basic Combat Training is like. For Kyndall Green, a senior at DeSoto High School, the challenge opened her eyes to the reality of what the military goes through to be ready to defend the nation.
"Right now with everything we're going through, it's a lot of people in the world that undermine what they're doing for our country, especially with everything going on, so I feel like this experience is really helping us to know that they're doing everything they can to fight for our country and us to get us to," Green said.
While student-athletes participate in the challenge, thousands of other students are exploring military vehicles and aircraft at the Career Expo, including an M1 Abrams main battle tank and an AH-64 Apache helicopter. During the event, military leaders also welcomed new soldiers.
"All this equipment you're gonna see off on the right hand side is all the equipment that is here on Fort Hood that we train on every day to make sure we're able to defend this great nation. Now behind me what you see are 53 new recruits who will soon be soldiers," Lieutenant General Kevin Admiral said.
Students attending the event say that in addition to building their respective athletic teams, they found a new perspective of respect for men and women in uniform.
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