LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- There are 12,000 Kentucky National Guard reserve members who work regular jobs during the week and a military job one weekend a month, along with two weeks of service a year.

It's one thing to hear about what Kentucky National Guard soldiers do, but it's another thing to experience it. That's what some local employers like UPS and Fifth Third Bank in Louisville recently did at Fort Knox.

"It helps them understand we're not out here kicking back," Sgt. Stuart Gray said. "We're training, we're working hard, maintaining the skills to serve our country."

When Gray is away from his day job at Norton Women's and Children's Hospital in Louisville, he can be found in an M109 Alpha-6 self-propelled howitzer. 

"My job is the gunner, so I am the second in command inside the vehicle," Gray said.

Gray spent a day showing off to Kentucky employers on what his powerful tank can do, including a live artillery demonstration.

The demonstration was part of a "boss lift," which gives employers the chance to see military training first-hand. Employers are taken from Frankfort to Fort Knox on a Blackhawk helicopter. Then they're given rare access to the military training some of their employees take part in with the Kentucky Army National Guard.

"It's been amazing, what an eye-opening experience," said Kim Halbauer, regional president of Kentucky for Fifth Third Bank in Louisville.

Halbauer met up with one of her newest employees at the bank, 2nd Lt. Hal Taylor.

"The National Guard has been really able to change me personally into being more coachable," Taylor said.

"In your day to day life, sometimes you forget about all the things that might be going on to protect us, our country, our state," Halbauer said.

The boss lifts are coordinated by the Department of Defense's Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve. Volunteers run the program with a mission to link National Guard and Reserve members and their civilian employers.

"We want them to understand so when they let folks go to drill or training or deployment they're really a part of our nation's defense," Mike Richie with Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve said. 

Employers left with a better understanding of the dual roles these men and women balance.

There are three boss lifts coordinated through Employer Support of the Guard and Reserve every year. 

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