Stacy Gray knew exactly what she was looking for when she walked into a room full of Columbus people pitching schools, housing and the quality of life in the Chattahoochee Valley.

The U.S. Army civil service employee and wife of a staff sergeant will be moving from Kentucky to Columbus in the next year as part of the Base Realignment and Closure process that has been bubbling for five years.

And her top priority is finding a high school for her 14-year-old daughter, Bryana.

"I am looking at two places: Columbus High and Brookstone," Gray said.

How did a mother who has not been to Columbus come to that conclusion?

"I have been doing my research," she said.

Gray has been making "a bunch of phone calls" to schools in Columbus, as well as looking at test scores on the Internet.

The Grays are just one family in a military wave that will hit Fort Benning and the Chattahoochee Valley in November and not stop rolling until September 2011.

The latest U.S. Army numbers indicate 28,000 new people will be moving into the Chattahoochee Valley over the next 18 months. That includes more than 11,400 service members, government civilian workers and defense contractors. The rest are spouses and children.

The Fort Knox families are armed with information about the Columbus region, said Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce President Mike Gaymon.

"They know more about us than we know about ourselves," Gaymon said.

Local people helping those moving into Columbus need to keep one thing in mind, Gaymon said.

"You better be honest with them," Gaymon said, "because they probably already know the answer to the question they are asking you."

More than 6,800 school-age children are expected in that onslaught.

On Thursday at Fort Knox, schools from throughout the Columbus region had booths set up to provide information to soldiers and their families. There were private schools such as Brookstone, St. Anne Pacelli Catholic School and Glenwood, and public schools from Opelika to Muscogee County.

Danni Harris, president of St. Anne Pacelli, made the trip to Fort Knox.

"We have been hearing there are 6,200 or more school-aged children coming and 8 percent to 10 percent are going to want private schools," Harris said. "Now, we have names."

Staff Sgt. Finley Alexander and his wife, Jennifer, were focusing on the education question as they walked with their daughter, Jessica, who will be a first-grader when she starts school in the Columbus area fall 2011. Her sister will be a fifth-grader.

The Alexanders just relocated to Kentucky from Fort Hood, Texas.

"I am looking at curriculum," Jennifer Alexander said. "I want to make sure curriculum levels are not low. Fort Hood was superior. They focused a lot on computer education, and that's what we are looking for."

Phenix City Superintendent Larry DiChiara is using a Georgia law to pitch his Alabama public schools.

"Our job is to sell Phenix City and we sell low property taxes and the fact that Alabama doesn't tax military retirement benefits," DiChiara said. "But I am also selling the HOPE Scholarship."

The law allows active duty military stationed at a Georgia post to be eligible for HOPE regardless of where they reside or where their kids go to school. The students must meet the academic requirements to receive the scholarship that pays tuition and partial book fees to Georgia colleges and universities.

"I am telling them you can educate your children in Alabama and still get HOPE," DiChiara said.

Jennifer Alexander had the answer when asked where they planned to live.

"Roll Tide," she said as she looked at her husband.

Staff Sgt. Patrick Fitzgerald, like Koch, has been surfing the Web for off-post housing.

One of the things Fort Knox soldiers are finding is their housing allowance will go further in the Columbus region. Fitzgerald, who is married with children, intends to rent a three-bedroom house.

"The prices are pretty nice," he said.