Salute to Service: Andy Anderson
WASHINGTON, Ga. (WJBF) – It’s that time again where we introduce you to our Salute to Service honoree. Each month we spotlight one of our men and women in uniform who continues to make a difference in their community.
We had the honor of speaking with Andy Anderson. Andy is an amazing guy with an amazing story.
For Andy Anderson serving his country was always his destiny.
“My dad was in the Army, World War II, and I learned a lot of history from him and went through ROTC at the University of Georgia, my mother filled out the application for me back in 1969. I went to undergrad and graduated from Georgia then went in the Army to serve my 4 years but ended up staying 30. The Army was a great experience for me, the best thing about it, when I was a young captain I got involved with the Green Berets and I was very fortunate to go to their one-year-long training, and was lucky enough to make it through there. So for the next 23 years I was serving with Green Beret Units primarily.”
After his time serving it was important for Andy to give back.
“There was no shortage of very worthy organizations to get involved with. I was telling someone the other day that I’m busier now than when I was in active duty, and I was pretty busy then, but organizations that I’m very proud to be associated with and that’s the Special Operations Warrior Foundation, which is truly the gold standard of organizations that support children of our fallen. Also some other charities around Fort Bragg and Fort Liberty Post I got involved with, then here in Washington after we’ve been gone for 45 years, my friends and family convinced me to run for city council, which I did, which I’m on there now so that’s another worthy endeavor.”
Over the years, Andy has also been involved with getting several statues made.
“I’ve been very honored to be involved in several things since I retired like this statue, which is the horse soldier statue which is a critical part of the 911 museum in New York City.”
Andy’s list of accomplishments went on for days, and receiving the Salute to Service Award was special to him.
“This is a very special one for me because it is my hometown. My roots are very deep here in Washington Georgia.”
Andy Anderson will continue to do good in his community and he appreciates his journey so far.
“My favorite poet has been Jimmy Buffet. So a lot of his lines have been relevant to me and one of them was though my sake and my 73 years of perpetual motion if he likes you, he’ll smile and say, he’ll say Brandon, some of it’s magic, and some of it’s tragic but I’ve had a good run all the way.”
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