SACO – Eighteen Army Reserve soldiers stood at attention during a community send-off ceremony in their honor Saturday at the Army Reserve Center in Saco.
The soldiers, drill sergeants from Maine and Massachusetts, deploy Wednesday for Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, where they will be on active duty for one year, training army recruits to be soldiers.
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“I am excited. I am ready to go, but I will miss my family,” said Staff Sgt. Christopher Lacasse, 42, a father of four from Auburn.
The soldiers are from the Army Reserve’s Company C, 1st Battalion, 304th Regiment.
About 50 people attended the event, hosted by American Legion Owen-Davis Post 96 in Saco, including Saco Mayor Roland Michaud, staff members from the offices of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, military veterans and members of the Saco community.
First Sgt. David MacMullen, who leads the company, said his soldiers will conduct three or four 10-week cycles of basic training, leading as many as 1,000 Army recruits through physical conditioning, riflery and other types of “warrior training.”
Some of the troops have long careers in the military.
Lacasse, his head cleanshaven for duty, has served 23 years, although this will be his first time training new recruits as a drill instructor. He graduated from drill sergeant school last spring.
Battalion Executive Officer Stacey O’Keefe, 41, of Dracut, Mass., has been in the Army Reserve for 20 years, having served tours in Iraq training Iraqi troops, and at Fort Dix in New Jersey training soldiers heading overseas.
After the ceremony Saturday , O’Keefe chatted with fellow soldiers while cradling her salt-and-pepper colored shih tzu Gizmo, who won’t be making the trip to Fort Leonard Wood.
“I’m a little nervous. It’s always new,” she said.
MacMullen said soldiers who become drill sergeants have unique mentalities. After all, they teach soldiers the skills they’ll need to survive combat.
“They have to be a father figure and counselor and a teacher and a mentor. You are all those things wrapped into one. You are what you want those soldiers to be,” he said.
The unit includes 18 soldiers, including 16 drill sergeants and two supply sergeants ranging in age from 26 to 51. Fourteen are from Maine.
MacMullen said basic training consists of three stages. During the initial “red” stage, Army drill instructors subject recruits to a roughly three-week period of high stress. The “white” stage is a more relaxed period, followed by the final “blue” stage, when recruits begin meshing as a group and learn to lead themselves in training.
Jonathan Hemmerdinger can be reached at 791-6316 or:
jhemmerdinger@mainetoday.com
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