BOWLING GREEN, Va. – Army Sgt. Jennifer Johnson spent Monday morning assaulting her fellow soldiers with a pugil stick nearly as big as her 5-foot, 1-inch frame.

When she isn’t on active duty, the delicate-looking 34-year-old reservist manages a Victoria’s Secret store in Bangor, Maine.

Johnson, who also happens to be the Army Reserve’s soldier of the year, may not be your typical drill-sergeant-in-training. But she is one of 63 now at Fort A.P. Hill to learn the art of molding Army recruits into soldiers.

“It’s the most important mission in the Army,” Johnson, whose father had a 30-year Army career, said of the job of drill sergeant. “A lot of soldiers go straight from training to combat.”

Johnson is in training with the 98th Division – the third training division to prepare its prospective drill sergeants at the Army post in Caroline County.

Post officials are working to make the post an Army Reserve “Center of Excellence” for drill sergeants. With three Reserve divisions now training there, A.P. Hill is home to half of all Reserve training for drill sergeants, according to post spokesman Ken Perrotte.

Taking on this new role fits perfectly with one of the post’s goals – “to fully optimize the facilities of A.P. Hill,” Perrotte said.

“Consolidated drill-sergeant training would be a good fit as we continue to grow here,” he said.

More than 1,000 military units – or between 50,000 and 100,000 troops – use the post during the year for some form of training or drills. That includes not only the Army and its Reserve and National Guard, but also Navy SEALs and Marines from Quantico Marine Corps Base and Camp Lejeune, N.C.

Making the Virginia post the central location for East Coast training of Reserve drill sergeants benefits not only A.P. Hill, but is helping the Reserve answer the increased demand to meet the needs of today’s military.

“A.P. Hill could provide three divisions the opportunity to train and not compete with active-duty counterparts,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Gallucci, the drill-sergeant school commandant. Meeting those needs won’t require additional funding from Congress, Perrotte said.

The post will use already allocated monies to make the enhancements needed, according to Tim Ryan, the post’s range officer. Ryan projects he will be able to create a Fire Movement Range and an Infiltration Training Range for drill sergeants in the last quarter of 2005.

“If they aren’t deployed, they will be shortly, so we want to make sure they have whatever they need,” he said.

Gallucci said the availability of a training locale is increasingly important since the heightened demand on the Reserve units means training has expanded to be a nearly year-round effort. He noted that 600 soldiers from his division have been deployed to Iraq to help set up training for that nation’s soldiers, including setting up a program to develop the equivalent of drill sergeants there.

“We’re building institutions to sustain that training,” Gallucci said. “To me, that’s exciting because I see that as a cornerstone to being able to exit.”

The new drill sergeants – who graduate on Saturday – understand the significance of the role they’re about to undertake.

Staff Sgt. Edward Solorzano, who at 47 is two decades older than the typical active-duty drill sergeant, says his job will be to transform young men and women from civilians into soldiers, ready for whatever combat may bring.

“You’re their dad, their brother, their son. You’re everything to that soldier,” he said.

“You’ve got to break them down to where they’re committed and build them up to becoming a soldier.” “It’s a big responsibility,” the four-time father added. “It’s like raising one of your own.”

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The Free Lance-Star is published in Fredericksburg.

AP-ES-12-07-04 1234EST