Krystal Alvar and Andrea Clifton were amazed by all the things Soldiers.

Arriving Jan. 26 at the U.S. Army Operational Test Command, the Killeen Independent School District students saw everything from a re-enlistment ceremony to combatives training to processing test documentation photos. They also got advice from the command’s deputy commander/chief of staff, the staff attorney and the director of test technology.

Alvar, an Ellison High School senior, is interested in the fields of communication and speech pathology. She spent the day with Capt. Vicki Stauffer, an operations officer who is responsible for coordinating events, ceremonies and conferences for OTC.

Stauffer, a graduate of Texas A&M University, is a logistician and will take over as the OTC Headquarters and Headquarters Company commander in May. She initially was worried that her job would not be interesting to a high school student, but Alvar quickly put that worry to rest.

“I really enjoyed my day at OTC with Captain Stauffer,” Alvar said. “She showed me a lot of things that I had no idea existed within the Army, even though my mother is in the Army and I’ve been around it all my life.”

Alvar also visited with Col. Kenny Crawford, OTC deputy commander/chief of staff. With four children of his own, Crawford said he is a huge supporter of programs that mentor students of all ages.

Clifton, a Shoemaker High School junior, is interested in law and psychology, so she was pleased to spend time with Pat Lisowski, OTC staff attorney, and Sharon Sutton, OTC Secretary of General Staff, who is just a few hours short of completing a doctorate in psychology. Capt. Jonathan Pride, aide-de-camp to Brig. Gen. Don MacWillie, OTC commanding general, was Clifton’s mentor for the day.

Pride is a graduate of Norwich University whose specialty is military intelligence. He deployed to Iraq with the 303rd Military Intelligence Battalion in 2009. He has previously been involved with the Big Brothers Program in New York.

“I spent our time driving from the Killeen Civic and Conference Center, where I picked up Andrea, to OTC, explaining the Army to her,” he said. “And toward the end of our time together, I gave her a short quiz, which she passed with no problem.”

A member of her high school step team and her church’s praise dance group, Clifton said the OTC “hooah” video put everything in its proper perspective.

“They showed the video to us during our test documentation orientation, and everything about OTC fell into place after we saw that video,” she said.

“Ms. (Gayle) Shull, Test Technology director, presented a great program on operational testing instrumentation,” Pride said. “I learned a lot from her myself.”

Pride said he was also grateful to the 303rd MI Bn. for allowing him and Stauffer to take their “shadows” to a re-enlistment ceremony and combatives training at the battalion.

National Groundhog Job Shadow Day, sponsored by the Department of Labor, America’s Promise-Alliance for Youth and Junior Achievement, annually brings together one million students and 100,000 businesses for a day of mentoring and hands-on experience. Killeen’s 15th annual Groundhog Job Shadow Day was co-sponsored by the City of Killeen and the Greater Killeen Chamber of Commerce.

“We paired 130 students from our four high schools with doctors, lawyers, Soldiers and businessmen from Killeen, Harker Heights and Fort Hood,” Wil Brewster, Killeen volunteer services director, said.