For six Trigg County High School seniors, their first day on Fort Campbell began with a traditional Army game of hurry up and wait.

The students are participating in Intercession Week, a week-long program offered at Trigg County High School to give students the opportunity to explore their chosen field more in-depth than they could in a traditional classroom. Students were given the opportunity to direct their own learning process to increase engagement, motivation and interest. The intersession experience ranges from job shadowing, internships and career exploration off-campus.

William Cranston, Eric Dana and Brandon Kelly are considering joining the Army, while Austin Ryan plans to join the Marines and Patrick Duarte is looking into the Air Force. Luke Chinn has already completed basic training for the Kentucky National Guard.

“We were told it was offered at the school and I plan on being in the military so I just wanted to see a different aspect of it,” Kelly said.

“I wanted to join the military and this seemed like a good option to do it,” Cranston said.

Chinn said he was given the choice to come to Fort Campbell and enjoy more time with the military, help the junior class with their community service projects or sit at school.

“This seemed like the best option,” he said.

Monday, the teens joined Soldiers at the John W. Kreckel Non-Commissioned Officers’ Academy in a field exercise to secure relations with an Afghan village. While the Soldiers went out to set up the scenario and begin mapping out their approach, the seniors waited back at Camp Hinsch.

When they moved to the lane, the students were split into two groups. Chinn, Ryan and Cranston stayed at the bottom of the hill to shadow the squad coming to take the hill. Duarte, Dana and Kelly moved to the top to help occupy the village.

“It’s hot and it’s hard work, I’m sure, but it’s kind of nice to see what they go through and what I’m going to have to go through when I’m older and in the military,” Ryan said. “I got to learn how some squads operate through a hostile environment, which really interested me because I want to be an infantryman in the Marines and I actually got to see how they operate live so it was a pretty interesting experience.”

“The infantry that we were with didn’t talk down on us or act like they were better than us,” Duarte said. “They were pretty chill and almost exactly like us.”

Chinn said he hoped to get an internal viewpoint of what he has to look forward to once he finishes Advanced Individual Training.

“It’s just more of an in-depth view so it’s not a total reality, culture shock when we do go,” Dana said.

Duarte said he was still deciding if he wanted to join the military, so spending time with Soldiers is a good opportunity for him to see what military occupational specialties there are and what each MOS entails.

The others already knew what they plan to sign up for.

“I want to go Infantry, Airborne Ranger, and when I told all the sergeants that, they looked at me kind of funny,” Cranston said.

“Every time I told someone I wanted to be a Marine, they were like ‘Oh, they’re crazy,’” Ryan said.

Kelly said he wants to go into the medical field as a physical therapist while Dana plans to be Cavalry scout. Chinn has already begun his path to becoming a Military Police officer.

“We did similar movements, squad movements, blank firings against opposing forces and switched places like that in basic,” Chinn said. “I think this was a little bit more in-depth though because it gave the students more of a chance to practice what they’ve learned whereas in basic everything is already predetermined for you.”

Tuesday started a bit quicker. The students visited 96th Aviation Support Battalion, 101st Combat Aviation Brigade, “Troubleshooters” territory to learn how Soldiers prepare for hostile situation using M16s and simulated targets. Although they began shooting at turkeys and drones, they moved quickly from the woods to the desert and even a few urban settings so they could feel what it was like to make a split-second decision whether an unknown entity was friendly or hostile. They learned how to differentiate between Soldiers in a firefight and enemy combatants both at a distance, and how to take the terrain into account to minimize casualties.

“[It was] stressful,” Ryan said.

“It’s definitely a good insight of what it’s like to be overseas,” Chinn said.

After lunch at the Rakkasans’ dining facility, the students moved over to the Virtual Clearance Training Suite to experience a convoy. With just two trucks and one truck commander between them, they got a taste of how stressful driving through hostile territory can be.

“Especially when you have communications failure and you’re trying to communicate with other people and get things to go right, and being shot at while you’re trying to do it,” Ryan said.

The teens started the morning Wednesday at The Sabalauski Air Assault School, repelling down the towers, before moving on to Don F. Pratt Museum to learn more about Fort Campbell’s history. Today they will experience new Soldier briefings at the 1st Lt. Robert Kalsu Replacement Company. Friday they will attend an NCOA graduation.

Pauline Hutchinson, Fort Campbell liaison officer to off post schools, arranged for the students to spend a week getting different experiences around post.

“We partnered with [Public Affairs Office] and we talked about the tour … from there we decided let’s do some different things which is how we ended up with the simulators,” she said. “I really wanted them to get a feel for the types of things that the military does.”

Hutchinson said this was the first time TCHS asked Fort Campbell to participate in its Intercession Week, but she hopes it is not the last.

“We can build on it and do things a little better,” she said. “Like have them spend a night in the barracks one day, or in the field one day. Spend a day down in one of the units. Really get the full-blown military experience.”

Hutchinson decided what the students should do, the school’s only request was that the students be treated like actual Soldiers rather than just observers.

“Hopefully this won’t run them away, but will make them prepared for what they’re about to do,” Hutchinson said.