AUGUSTA – Bill Libby learned about the military on warm summer nights at a camp on the shore of Sabattus Pond, where his dad and uncles would share war stories of buddies and faraway places.

The boy would listen and dream.

“They didn’t talk about combat,” said Libby. “It was guy stuff.” They loved their friends, and Libby grew up believing in the camaraderie of soldiers.

Half a century later – after West Point, Vietnam and Guatemala – the Lewiston native still believes. His beliefs have deepened to include such aims as helping people and protecting the soldiers in his command.

“Some officers go their whole careers without learning that,” said Libby, who last week became the highest-ranking military officer in Maine.

Gen. John W. “Bill” Libby was sworn in Thursday as the commissioner of Maine’s Department of Defense, Veterans and Emergency Management, succeeding Gen. Joseph Tinkham.

He is already at work protecting Maine’s soldiers and their families.

Libby has begun lobbying the Legislature for a bill called “The Maine Military Family Relief Act.” If passed, it would add a check box to Maine tax returns for people to donate part of their refunds.

The money would help families of soldiers while they were away on active duty. If a furnace broke, for example, the fund could help a spouse pay for the sudden emergency.

It’s an aid that Libby, now 60, didn’t have when he began his military career.

Libby began his career at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. After one year, however, he left.

“West Point was a different place then,” he said. “I didn’t like the system, the hazing that let students abuse others students. It wasn’t for me.”

So he transferred to the University of Maine, where he majored in education and enrolled in ROTC. After graduation in 1966, he was commissioned. Two years later, he volunteered for service in Vietnam.

The Army made him a battery commander in the 1st Cavalry. For a time, he fought near the border between the north and south. He also became a liaison officer, traveling with a lieutenant colonel.

That’s when he learned about leadership.

“If the troops know that you care about their welfare first, they will do anything for you,” he said.

After returning from Vietnam, Libby taught ROTC at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and was stationed in Germany for a time. Along with his wife, Cindy, and three sons, Derek, Brad and Jeff, he moved 13 times in 10 years.

So he left the army, but it didn’t take.

After three years as Fryeburg Academy’s dean of students, he joined the Army National Guard as a full-time officer.

“I learned I could stay in one place and still be part of the military,” he said.

In 1994, he headed Task Force Dirigo, which he still calls “the best experience of my career.” For six months, he led groups of troops as they served their annual two weeks in Guatemala. They built roads and dug wells. A photo on his office wall pictures him giving water to Guatemalans.

“They’ve got nothing to give, but they give so much,” he said.

Libby’s new job offers few physical changes. His office will merely move across the hall, from his old post as deputy commissioner.

However, he will become a figurehead.

“In Maine, I become the spokesman for all things military,” he said.

Tall and thin with a crown of close-cropped gray hair, Libby seems at ease in his new position.

If there are concerns, they are for the men and women in the guard, he said. Whenever he hears news of a helicopter crash or an explosion in Iraq, he pauses to hear if it’s someone from Maine.

“For a second, I stop breathing and my heart skips a beat.”

For Maine soldiers, he can help their families and pray. Many left earlier this month. And others are likely to be called. Nothing has been announced or ordered, but it’s the next logical step, Libby said.

“We know there’s another rotation coming a year from now,” he said.

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