Tulsa Marine Colonel heads to Afghanistan for the first time

Tulsa Marine Corp reserve Colonel Russell Anderson has a quote from John Wayne in his office. "Courage is not the lack of fear, courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyway" Anderson said proudly.

Anderson told KRMG news he'll keep that quote in mind when he deploys to Afghanistan for the first time next week.

While there his job will be pretty cool “I’ll be the liaison between the regional commander and the joint special operations task force” he smiled as he said.

Another way to put that is he’ll be bunking with some really tough dudes. “I’m sure I’ll have a lot of stories that I won’t be able to tell when I get back” he chuckled. “It’ll be really interesting to see how they operate.”

Anderson spent several months in Bahrain Saudi Arabia a few years ago but he understands that's nothing like Afghanistan.  Still he didn't hesitate at all when the call came. "I'm ready to go" he said excitedly.

Listen to the entire interview with Colonel Anderson with a click here.

The Colonel used a sports analogy when he described his readiness. “If you’re a football player and you practiced your entire life and never got to play a game it’d be frustrating” he began. “As a Marine when you train your entire life to do this type of thing, to defend your country to be involved in the defense of the nation I was just excited.”

Anderson is newly married and has a son who will be a senior football player next year at Union High School. He told us those are his biggest motivation for going. "If I'm able to go there and keep the violence there I'm OK, I just don't want it to come here."

We asked Anderson if he has already imagined what it will be like when he comes home and he quickly answered. “I’ve already been thinking about that.” He went on “my life has changed in the last couple of years and I have a lot to live for here.”

Anderson summed up like this “I want to come home and be a part of Tulsa, be a part of the family and I imagine when I walk down that aisle it’s going to be hard for me to keep a dry eye.”

We feel the same Colonel. Keep your head down and come home safely and all our best from KRMG.