VETERANS' DAY SPEECH - MSgt AJ Anderson - American Legion Post #40

Good afternoon, Students, Teachers, Parents, Honored Veterans. Happy Veterans Day to the community of Lanesboro!

Thank you for the wonderful introduction! And thank you to the Legion for inviting me to speak today. As mentioned, I graduated (barely and only through great effort put forth by the school administration thank you so much!) in 2005 and my friends and family have names you’d likely recognize: Horihans, Bergos, Charlebois, Flattums, Qualy’s, Waldows, Petersons, Hamanns, Johnsons, Hungerholts, my niece Quinn, nephew Jackson. I have been a part of Team Lanesboro my entire life and always will be. As soon as I can convince Congress to build a base in Burro for me to work at, I’ll be back, never to leave again.

It's truly an honor to stand before you today as we gather to recognize and honor the brave men and women who have served in our military. On this Veteran’s Day, we pause to reflect on their sacrifices, their commitment, and the unbreakable bonds formed through service and teamwork.

Service, at its core, is about giving. It’s about putting the needs of others first. And for our Veterans, that meant not just a commitment to a cause or a mission, but to each another. Service is a shared experience. It’s something that take all kinds of individuals—each with their own strengths and weaknesses—and turns them into a cohesive unit. In the military, no one succeeds alone.

Think of the training, the long hours, the physical and mental challenges. They are designed not just to prepare individuals for combat, but to prepare them to function as part of something much bigger than themselves. It’s about building trust, fostering communication, and learning to depend on others when you’re at your most vulnerable.

Whether on the front lines of Iraq or serving part time at home in the National Guard, every day in the military is a day of service, not just to your country, but to the people beside you. Veterans understand this in a way few others do. They understand that their actions have a ripple effect—that one person’s failure or success can mean the difference between life and death for someone else.

But service is not only about the people you serve—it also changes the person who serves. There are profound benefits to being part of something later than yourself, to dedicating your time and effort to a cause greater than personal gain. Service builds character. It teaches resilience, responsibility, humility. It instills a deep sense of purpose and belonging that transcends individual achievement.

For many Vets, the experience of service shapes who they are long after they leave the military. It helps them develop leadership skills, adapt to challenging situations, and form lasting bonds with others. Veterans often speak about how the discipline and commitment they learned in the military have stayed with them throughout their lives, guiding them in their careers, in their communities, and in their relationships. Service helps people realize their full potential and their capacity to make a difference. It helps them understand the value of sacrifice—not for personal gain, but for the well-being of others. The benefits of service extend beyond the individual, as they often carry forward into the broader society, enriching communities and inspiring others to give back as well.

The greatest skill that I learned in the service is how to be part of an effective team. Teamwork is about more than just task accomplishment; it’s about mutual respect, sacrifice, and an unwavering commitment to the mission. The best teams are those that trust each other and learn how to work together even in the most difficult circumstances.

In the military, teamwork is often a matter of life and death. Members trust one another implicitly, and they understand that their success or failure depends on everyone doing their part. I’ve been a C130 Loadmaster for 18 years and have 4500 flying hours. Seniors, I’ve spent more time in an airborne C130 than you have spent in high school classrooms over your 4 years. I delivered troops and equipment during the 2007 surge in Iraq. I airdropped supplies at Sinjar Mountain when the Yazidi people were being slaughtered and enslaved by ISIS as the Kurds desperately tried to mount a defense. I dropped hundreds of tons of ammunition, water and MRE’s to the snake-eater SOCOM teams who were fighting isolated and surrounded in Syria. I’ve evacuated troops wounded in firefights and by IED’s. Struggling through these 20+ hour missions for weeks at a time, busting my butt, I wasn’t thinking about the spreading democracy and upholding the US’s geopolitical strategy. I was simply thinking about not failing my brothers and sisters on the ground. I could not and would not let my family, my team, down.

I am a member of the warfighting team and I fulfill a role called a Force Enabler. I’ve never fired my weapon at the enemy; I enable others to deliver Force. Each role is important and valued, but alone we are useless and ineffective. Only by working as a team do we achieve our objectives. The relationship between our team members is based on trust. Ground troops can concentrate on fighting because they trust that I will continue to resupply them with the means to fight and that I will extract them when they can’t go on. This trust comes from a shred background and faith in our team’s singular goal; fight and win.

A common thread in the responses the Legion got from Lanesboro Veterans is that the bonds they formed in service are unbreakable. I can attest to this as well. In my nine deployments, I’ve made close friends that range across multiple spectrums; age, socioeconomic, racial, political. None of those things even begin to factor into your friendship one you’ve trusted that person to watch your back and keep you from dying.

We see these bonds in the way that soldiers cover each other’s backs, in the way they help each other through the hardest moments of their lives, in the way they encourage each other when everything seems impossible. They become a true team, with each person playing an essential role. It’s about a shared mindset and understanding that when you serve, you do not serve alone.

But the concept of service and teamwork aren’t confined to the military. The values learned in service transcend the barracks, the bases, and the battlefield. Veterans bring these values with them into the civilian world, where they continue to serve their communities, support their families, and contribute to their workplaces. The teamwork Veterans learn in the military translates into how they collaborate with others in their everyday lives and makes them the backbone of our communities.

As we honor our Veterans today, let’s not forget that service and teamwork can be expressed in every corner of our society. They shape the way we treat one another, the way we build our communities, and the way we come together in times of crisis. It’s this spirt of service and teamwork that we should celebrate today—not just as an abstract ideal but as something that can inspire all of us to be better, to work together, to support one another.

In the stories of service submitted to the Legion, I was struck by the multitude of ways that people from our little town served. Some were drafted, some served a single term, some made a career of it, and everyone had different reasons for joining. Some wanted the honor of serving our country, some did it for the educational benefits, some, like me, did it because we had no clue what we wanted to do with our lives at 18. There are three good decisions that changed the course of my life and only one of them was made by me: marrying my beautiful wife in 2020. The other two were Dan and Maureen Anderson decided to adopt a baby boy in 1987, for which I will forever be grateful, and those same parents pushing me against my will to sign up for the Air Force in 2005. My parents were smarter than me and I’ve never been happier to be wrong. I went in thinking I’d do my 4 years and get out to have fun in free college. Instead, I found a community, a family, a team that helped me learn who I was and gave me a sense of purpose and belonging so pure and blissful that I’ve never been able to leave. Ask any Vet what they miss and they likely will mention the people, the sense of purpose, and being part of a team.

And now for a shameless recruiting pitch, especially to the Juniors and Seniors. The world is confusing and difficult to navigate. Some people have their life path nailed down by 7^th grade and follow it through: good for you! Go for it, I support you and will help you in whatever way you need. Some people, like me, just aren’t sure what they want at 18 and need a place to build meaningful relationships, do meaningful work, and experience the world before they make a life decision. If that’s you, consider an enlistment in any branch, you will find a family, a sense of purpose, and extraordinary experiences that are offered nowhere else in the world. You will learn the core lessons of service and teamwork. Not to mention the official benefits; free college, free VA healthcare for life and preferential hiring. I’ve met zero people who regretted their service after it was all said and done. Ever. For real for real no cap on God. That was for the Youngs, if you’re over 30 forget I ever said it.

Today, as we honor the service and sacrifice of our Veterans, let’s not just reflect on their individual courage, but also on the teamwork that made that courage possible. Let’s remember the soldiers who fought not just for themselves, but for each other. The sailors who sailed not just for their own ship, but for the success of the fleet. The airmen who flew not just to protect the skies, but to protect their brothers and sisters in arms on the ground. And the Marines who stormed the beaches, not for the glory of battle, but to ensure that their friends made it through.

On this Veteran’s Day, let us honor the legacy of service and teamwork. Let us remember that the strength of our nation comes not from the individual, but from the collective effort of all of us working together. And as we celebrate our Veterans today, let’s also take a moment to reflect on how we can embody that same spirit of service and teamwork in our own lives, so that we, too, can make a difference for the greater good.

Thank you for your time and attention, and Happy Veteran’s Day.

AJ Anderson

MN Air National Guard

C130 Loadmaster