SACO — Being a drill sergeant involves a whole lot more than the usual movie depiction of a bad-tempered fellow barking orders at a raw recruit.

The best way to put it, said 1st Sergeant David MacMullen, is that the drill sergeant is taking a civilian and turning that person into a soldier.

“It’s how to shoot, move and communicate,” he said Saturday.

It is a task not to be taken lightly, said MacMullen. Within six months to a year after basic training, the soldier could be headed into a combat environment.

Turning civilians into soldiers is a task the 18-member Company C of the 1st Battalion of the 403rd Regiment will be gladly pursuing come Saturday, when their U.S. Army Reserve unit, made up of sergeants from Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, travels to Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. to begin their new mission. All but four are Mainers.

They’ll be there for nearly 13 months, teaching new privates ”“ full-time regular army recruits, reserve or national guard, how to be soldiers. Basic training runs 10 weeks.

For the youngest of the recruits, it may be the first time anyone is in their face, slinging orders, said MacMullen. Drill sergeants will be with the new recruits from when they wake up at 4:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. every day. They’re like parents, in a way ”“ strict parents ”“ who will teach physical training, rifle marksmanship, values training and drilling, among other subjects.

On Saturday, the Owen Davis Post 96, American Legion, hosted a formal send off for the unit at their headquarters at the U.S. Army Reserve Training Center on Franklin Street. Besides Legion officials, members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars were present, along with Saco Mayor Ron Michaud, a representative from the Saco Police Department, the Freeport Flag Ladies, Sandy Taylor of the Gold Star Mothers and aides from the offices of Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins.

Drill sergeants, said Snowe in a letter read by aide Peter Morin, “are the embodiment, and yes, the instillers, of the regimen and rigor that underpin our fighting forces in the U.S. Army.”

“I know you’ll train the men well,” said Owen Davis Post 96 American Legion commander Jim Harper.

Reserves, who train one weekend a month and two weeks a year, all have day jobs. Mark Holmquist, one of the Mainers headed to Fort Leonard Wood, is a a detective with the Maine State Police. Maj. Stacey O’Keefe of Dracut, Mass. who is the battalion’s executive officer, teaches ninth and tenth graders.

Jeff Robinson of Saco runs a carpentry and remodeling business and was  promoted from corporal to sergeant earlier Saturday.

For Robinson, the assignment helps complete a commitment he made a long time ago. As well, to think he’ll be among those teaching America’s sons and daughters how to be soldiers, he said, is pretty special.

Robinson, an editorial cartoonist for the Journal Tribune, first joined the National Guard in 1983. In 1992, he was in the 1st Calvary Division doing desert training when he got hurt, he said. He ended up leaving the military in 1996. One and one-half years ago, he joined the reserves and graduated from drill sergeant school in August.

“I thought my career had ended. I loved the military,” he said Saturday, following the ceremony. “I’m pretty glad to be back in. I’m fulfilling a dream and completing a 20-year commitment.”

— Contact Staff Writer Tammy Wells at 324-4444 or at twells@journaltribune.com.