Sgt. Maj. Robert Segal’s first sighting of Pfc. Jason Saxton left him underwhelmed.

Segal’s newest charge at Baghdad’s Camp Victory was as young as they get.

After Saxton got out of basic training in November 2010, he had to wait at Camp Shelby, Miss., for his 18th birthday before he could join the 116th Cavalry Brigade in Iraq. When his boots hit the ground, he claimed the title of the brigade’s youngest deployed soldier.

So there was this short kid from Blackfoot, waiting aimlessly at the entry point to Camp Victory. Segal wasn’t sure what to make of him.

“I didn’t know what he was doing,” said Segal, one of the Brigade’s most seasoned soldiers (and third-oldest at 58). “Another unit had adopted him like a mascot. He looked like he was old enough to be in the Boy Scouts.”

But Segal identified with the Blackfoot boy. The self-described entrepreneur who had shuttered his Caldwell Boulevard car lot and left behind his wife and aging dog, Toby, for this deployment had a similar experience.

Segal had been shipped to Vietnam when he was just 18. He celebrated his 19th birthday in that country.

“I probably was one of the youngest, which is probably why I related to Saxton,” Segal said.

Soon enough, Segal set Saxton straight on the unit he’d be working in: Alpha Troop, 2nd Squadron, 16th Cavalry Regiment — also known as “Animal Troop.” The troop controls access to the base and provides security. The job was an opportunity to help people — something that appealed to Saxton.

“The very first talk I had with Saxton, I said ‘You are the new guy here,’ ” Segal said. “ ‘What you do here, how you perform, is something you will take with you the rest of your life.’ ”

For a long while, Segal kept Saxton tethered to headquarters, until the private could figure out where to eat and do his laundry.

“I would take him out on the perimeter, and his eyes would light up,” Segal said. “He is a smart enough young man, he doesn’t need mentoring in most of the other stuff, but I felt he was vulnerable coming in the way he did.”

Every time he came across Saxton, he’d issue a pop quiz: “Is your weapon clean? Do you have enough ammo? How much water have you had today? Do you have water?”

THE KID

Saxton is serious for his age, graduating a year early from Independence Alternative High School in Blackfoot. He went to the recruiter when he was still in high school. He joined the 116th to serve Idahoans and because he has a couple of family members in the brigade.

“I was thinking about joining the military for about three years prior to enlisting,” Saxton said. “I caught wind that the brigade was going to deploy, and I just wanted to deploy with my brigade so I could help people.”

So Saxton took his seriousness, which he attributes to putting on “an edge” after being picked on in school, and applied it to becoming a good soldier. He developed under Segal’s watchful eye.

Soon, he was a regular soldier. He was recently promoted to specialist.

Of Segal, Saxton says, “I do look up to him as a person with a lot of experience and knowledge. I have learned a lot from Sgt. Major Segal.”

Saxton’s day typically starts at noon (he goes to bed at 4 a.m.). After meeting with his co-workers, he checks in with Segal. Then Saxton heads to the entry control point, which provides access to the base. He works with Iraqis to make sure visitors have the correct paperwork to allow them on base.

“I haven’t had too many problems with the local nationals,” he said. “They usually laugh when they find out how old I am.”

Saxton said he’s thinking — for now, at least — of making a career of the Army. Of course, he has time. He’ll still be 18 when he returns from Iraq this fall. His family is supportive of his career.

Saxton has two brothers and a twin sister in Idaho. His mother thought the Army “was a great way to help me grow up,” he said. “She also thought it would be good to see the world and experience different cultures and bring it back and share with them.”

What he’s learned so far:

“You should always respect others no matter what nationality or what age, because eventually you will see them again,” Saxton said. “It is one of the lessons (Segal) has imparted to me.”

Segal hasn’t told Saxton to lighten up — yet. “I think that’s one of the things he likes about me,” Saxton said.

THE VET

Segal lauds the men he oversees as “amazing, professional, very disciplined soldiers. Definitely a cut above the kind of soldier I was when I was their age.”

He doesn’t joke about his role as a leader.

“It is my job to take care of these soldiers,” he said. “It is imperative you choose your friends wisely. The military culture is no different than the civilian culture. The people who abuse drugs or who live that shoddy life, they will accept anybody into their group.”

That’s not to say that the serious Saxton and Segal don’t occasionally joke, about age or anything else.

“We pretty much like to say he was around back in the Stone Age,” Saxton said. “It is in good fun.”

After Vietnam, Segal headed to California and struggled with the public perception of veterans. He illustrates the shift from revulsion to acceptance using the metaphor of television shows.

“Villains on ‘Hawaii Five-O’ were deranged vets. Then a shift happened,” Segal said. “Suddenly, heroes like Magnum P.I. were Vietnam vets. Things changed.”

Segal’s been around, owning a couple of bars and car lots here and there. He loves motorcycles. He studied social science at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and at Boise State. But, really, his life is about the military and the friendships he’s formed, Segal said.

He came to Idaho in 1996, transferring into the Idaho Army National Guard to work because the car lot “runs itself.”

“The bonds that are formed in the military are the strongest of bonds,” he said. “These bonds are stronger when you come into these hostile areas. I’ll never forget this young man until I die.”

Kathleen Kreller: 377-6418