Staff Sergeant Leah N. Lewis is an Army recruiter, who is new to the Lubbock area. She has nine schools total that she works with and just recently took over Littlefield at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year.
She was able to get the 77th Army Band to come and perform for the LHS student body on Thursday morining, to help show the Army in a different light.
“This is one of my favorite schools and I just feel like having the 77th Army Band come and perform shows the Army in a different light,” she said. “Unfortunately, when people see the Army, they see a lot of combat. They see kicking down doors, and everyone is like I don’t want to die. But, the Army is so much more than just combat.”
She added, “There are so many different opportunities, whether you do it short term for three years or you do it for 20 years, there is something that everyone can get out of the Army and I just wanted these guys to kind of show what we can do in a different light.”
WO1 Martin Johnston gave a little background on the Army Band, saying, “We don’t get a chance to get out in the community as much as we would like to because we have requirements on Ft. Sill. But, when we do, we want to go out to far lands hours away.”
There has been an Army Band on Ft. Sill since its inception back in the 1860’s.
“The area around Lawton and Southwest, Oklahoma, has been saturated with Army musicians and just Army pressence in general,” he said. “Out here where there are not very many military installations, we like to come out here and talk more about the Army and reach schools that may not see us very often.”
He added, “We just got done doing a two week holiday tour, where we played in Lubbock and Amarillo and then worked all the way back through Oklahoma and ended in Texarcana. We just try and get out in the community at much as possible.”
WO1 Johnston stated, “We contacted all of the recruiters and told them we can take the show to a school, you just have to let us know where and SSG. Lewis told us Littlefield High School is where we need to be, so she got us here. A big thanks to her, she cares a lot about this community.”