SPONSOR & NOMINEE - LEONARD ANDERSON (LEONARD ANDERSON PHOTOGRAPHY

“If you have the right attitude, the military can help you become a better version of yourself.”

- Leonard Anderson

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leonardandersonphoto.com 720-519-0877 Veteran | served 20 years in the Army

What did you do in the service?

Like most military people, I did several different jobs, but my actual job title was signals analyst. In addition to that, I was a trainer in the S3, which is our staff training position. I was a recruiter for three years, and one other job I had was an instructor. I taught the new military and some civilian folks how to do their job. They would have some different branches within my office, and each section did something different. Depending on where they went, I would tell them the train to whatever section. The last job I did was actually kind of a humbling additional duty as a casualty notification officer. It’s like what you see in the movies where someone passes away and they have the military folks knock on the door of the next of kin. That was one of my last official duties in the Army.

What was the biggest reason that led you to join the military?

I’m originally from Philadelphia and I was a mediocre student, so I knew that I wouldn’t make it to college, and I knew my mom couldn’t afford it. I already decided before graduating high school that I would join the military. Still, I had not decided which branch but eventually narrowed it down to the Air Force or Army. Like some people, I like to watch Marine Corps movies, and Full Metal Jacket was out before joining the military, but after seeing that, I figured the Marines was not for me. Then I decided that I didn’t want to join the Navy because I couldn’t swim, narrowing down to the Army or Air Force. I assumed the Air Force is usually the smarter branch and Army because my family was primarily Army, so I considered that and talked to both recruiters. The Army told me that I could take whatever job I wanted as long as I was qualified and appealed to me. I asked the same question to the Air Force, and they told me you don’t get to pick your job. Then I asked myself, “Why would I want to join a branch of service if I don’t have any choice in what job I wanted?” So, I chose the Army. But the biggest reason why I joined the Army was to travel.

Leonard Anderson

Photographer

What is your perspective on patriotism as a black person who was in the military?

That’s a very good question and I will relate that to a story. When I was on recruiting duty, that was the only time I had ever been asked what my ethnicity was. They do that because they pair recruiters based on ethnicity in the recruiting areas, so I was pretty much in a black recruiting station. I was in West Baltimore and we would go to schools and in the neighborhood in our assigned area. Because they want the best representation for the specialty, they usually pull the folks in the top percentage of their career field to recruit, and I was one of them. One day in around 2005, about five or six of us talked to a young black man and asked him, “How do you feel about the military?” He said, “Well, my mom and dad tell me the Army ain’t no place for a black man.” I told him I understood that many people still feel that way and a lot of that was because of how veterans were treated when they came home after World War I, II, and then Vietnam. I said we are successful young black senior N.C.O.s who own homes and drove nice vehicles, but it’s not for everybody. If you have the right attitude, the military can help you become a better version of yourself. I mean that if you have a bad attitude and don’t want anybody to tell you what to do, the Army is not going to be a place for you. Unless you own your own business, someone will always be telling you what to do.

While I don’t wrap myself in an American flag and run around yelling, “America, America!” I did feel it was my duty to serve my country. Now granted, people say, “Well, how can you love a country that doesn’t love you?” But this is the country I live in. I’ve done very well for myself, my family I provided for and have not been treated badly. As far as patriotism, I love this country because this is the country I live in, this is where I was born, and again I’ve done things throughout my life to make sure that I’m able to provide for my family and in this case, the military was what helped provide me with that edge. I won’t say that it’s always been perfect, but what I learned in the Army helped transition the way I think about things as a civilian now.

What are the things that people should consider before they decide to serve their country?

I would say decide why you’d want to join the military and what branch you want to be in. Some people have an obligation to serve; many joined right after September 11th because they felt they had a duty to serve. In a particular job market like now, where things aren’t looking up, people are looking towards the military. Some people think the military will take them when no one else is hiring, which is not necessarily the case, but it is an option. People want to have their college paid for and see that the military is an option for that. I’ll give another example, which is not the norm. We have people who were applying for permanent residency but had a green card. So, if you serve X number years in the military, it helped you get the accelerated citizenship, which at least two people in the Army did; one guy was from Africa. He just graduated from law school at the University of Baltimore. I posted a flyer at the school one day and he called and said he wanted to talk about joining the Army. We talked and he mentioned he had loans that needed to be paid off because he had just finished law school, and he wanted to be a Jag officer. So I explained that he couldn’t join the Army as a Jag officer because he must pass the bar and be a U.S. citizen. Then I told him the plan: join the Army, pick a job, pay off his loans, get his citizenship, pass the bar, apply for Jag, and then they’ll transition him from Enlisted to the commission officer, which is exactly what happened. He joined as a chemical operations specialist, got his loans paid off, and went from specialist to Sergeant Captain and I think he said he did all of that within a year. People do join the military for that reason, to become U.S. citizens.