Free Army Educator Tour to Fort Sam Houston

As an educator, I don't get to do very many things for free, especially professional development. So when I received an e-mail from my local army recruiter saying the Army was going to sponsor an educator tour over the summer and it wouldn't cost me anything, I submitted an application. I sent several e-mails asking if I had been chosen, and when I was, I was really excited.

I  knew the Army recruited kids out of high school and they had to go to boot camp, but beyond that, I didn't know much about the Army except that if a recruit served, they could also get a free education.

The place we got to go was Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio Texas. We spent two full days on the base with travel days on each end, for a total of four days. During day 1 we toured the education campus and saw what medical jobs recruits are trained for. This base is phase 2 of Army training. Phase 1 is boot camp. Recruits come to Fort Sam Houston to be trained in a variety of medical fields. Respiratory, Optometry, Dentistry, Surgery, you name it, they are trained to fully operate a field hospital anywhere in the world.

On day 2 we went to an FOB (Forward Operating Base), which is basically a field experience set up for a real situation. In this case, we were going to "Afghanistan." On this site we observed recruits rehearsing real life situations on realistic mannequins. For example, they had to repeatedly do things to "save"a person until they reached a certain minimal time.  They learn to apply tourniquets, put in trachs, and stabilize a person.

I have always respected military personnel, but after this trip, my respect level went up a notch when I realized how much they have to learn and the courage they need to face dangerous situations. If you are an educator and have the opportunity to take this tour, I highly recommend it.  The Army seeks to put young people in a career they will enjoy for a lifetime, as well as prepare them to defend and protect all of us.