FORT HOOD, Texas — The sounds of brass and woodwind instruments and drumlines filled Phantom Warrior Stadium Aug. 21, 2026 as five Killeen Independent School District marching bands took the field during the U.S. Army Experience, KISD Band Showcase.
Students from Harker Heights, Killeen, Ellison, Chaparral and Shoemaker High Schools performed ahead of the fall marching season while also exploring Army equipment, meeting Soldiers and learning about military career opportunities.
The event continued the U.S. Army Experience initiative following the Army Basic Training Experience held earlier this year, giving local students another opportunity to see Army life firsthand.
Dr. Amy Bennett, assistant director for fine arts for KISD, said the collaboration allowed students to think about opportunities beyond high school while strengthening the relationship between KISD and Fort Hood.
“What we’re doing today is a collaboration between the U.S. Army Experience and Killeen ISD, and we’re trying to provide an experience to our students that hopefully inspires them to think beyond just their high school years,” Bennett said.
The 1st Cavalry Division Band also participated, showing students that music can continue as a career within the Army.
“We’re just making sure the students know that there’s a lot of lanes for them to consider through the U.S. Army,” Bennett said.
Outside the stadium, students explored military vehicles and spoke with Soldiers about their jobs. Pfc. Jeremiah White, a 19C Bradley Fighting Vehicle crew member, and Sgt. Gabriel Rivera, a 19D cavalry scout and Bradley operator, showed students different crew positions and systems inside the Bradley.
White said students were especially interested in climbing inside the vehicle and seeing how it operated.
“They’ve been very curious to know about different things in the Bradley and how stuff has been working,” White said. “Most of them were really excited to actually be able to get into the driver’s hole, look around and learn about how everything works and what everything does.”
Rivera said face-to-face interaction with Soldiers can make military careers more tangible.
“Having the equipment there, having the people that operate the equipment, it makes people more interested,” Rivera said.
White said events like the showcase offer students an experience he did not have while growing up.
“This shows the younger generation exactly what we do,” White said.
Several students also asked White about basic training. Having recently completed initial entry training, he discussed the discipline required and encouraged students to listen, stay focused and understand what they were signing up for.
Rivera similarly encouraged students to research Army career opportunities before making a decision.
“This is an opportunity and an option,” Rivera said. “I would do your research.”
While the Army displays gave students something new to explore, the marching bands remained the center of the evening.
Josh Connelly, director of bands at Chaparral High School, said the showcase gave all five KISD programs an opportunity to perform in a less competitive environment.
“It kind of gives more of a pep rally standpoint rather than a showcase of competition,” Connelly said. “It makes it a little bit more fun versus a little bit more competitive.”
He said bringing all five schools together also gave students an opportunity to reconnect with friends from across the district.
“I think they like the camaraderie,” Connelly said. “They like being able to see all of their friends from all five schools. We don’t get to do this very often.”
For Shoemaker High School senior drum major Josiah Dudley, the event marked the beginning of his final marching season.
Shoemaker performed portions of its show, “In Pieces,” during the showcase. Dudley said he was proud of how much the younger musicians had developed during summer rehearsals.
“They’ve grown so much, not only as people and musicians, but also as a family,” Dudley said.
He also saw similarities between the teamwork required in marching band and the military.
“We’ve made sure to hold each other accountable in the things that we do,” Dudley said. “We’ve also seen adaptability, especially with things like how hot it is outside, if the weather’s really bad, if someone’s missing something from their uniform or their instrument.”
The performance carried additional meaning for Dudley as he entered his senior year.
“It’s really surreal,” Dudley said. “I can remember when I was first marching for the first time almost four years ago.”
Ellison High School senior Jewel Reese shared a similar perspective.
Reese, a sixth-year band student, euphonium player and head drum major, said the event allowed each school to see how much work the other bands had put into preparing for the season.
“It’s definitely a good feeling to see all the hard work that they’ve put in, as well as them to see how much we’ve put in,” Reese said.
Ellison performed the first two movements of its show, “Boom Crash Pap.”
Reese said conducting the performance gave her the chance to see her fellow musicians respond to the emotion and energy of the music.
“Watching them perform, it just gives me such joy to watch them putting the hard work in,” Reese said.
The military setting was also familiar to Reese, whose father serves in the Navy and is approaching 20 years of service.
“Growing up in the military, you get to see different groups and their different specialties,” Reese said. “It’s definitely a great thing to experience because not a lot of people get to experience this.”
Bennett said bringing the five bands onto Fort Hood required coordination between the school district and several organizations across the installation. Students, buses, chaperones and equipment trucks all had to be moved onto the installation.
She said the U.S. Army Experience helped make the process as seamless as possible.
The event also gave some KISD educators their first opportunity to visit Phantom Warrior Stadium or experience Army equipment firsthand.
“It’s also just normalizing Fort Hood as a part of our community,” Bennett said.
She said partnerships between Fort Hood and local schools can benefit both communities.
“A school district has resources, and Fort Hood has resources,” Bennett said. “When you can kind of have a symbiotic relationship and put that all together, we can really start lifting each other.”
By the end of the evening, students had performed alongside neighboring schools, explored Army equipment and spoken directly with Soldiers about military careers.
For Bennett, those interactions were among the most important parts of the event.
“More opportunities for Soldiers to genuinely engage with the students,” Bennett said. “We did have that here today, and I can tell that the students really enjoyed that.”
The showcase gave KISD students an opportunity to celebrate the work they had already accomplished while learning about possibilities that could extend beyond their final performance on a high school field.