Alumni Stories: Aaron Anderson Part 2

In Part 1 of our conversation with Aaron Anderson, we followed his journey from student life at PCA to the front lines of military service in Iraq and Afghanistan. His story is one of courage, sacrifice, and a deep love for his country. But it’s also one of personal struggle — a season marked by loss, questions of identity, and a faith tested by trauma.

In this second part, Aaron opens up about the emotional and spiritual challenges he faced after returning home. With honesty and vulnerability, he shares how God met him in the lowest moments, how community helped him heal, and how he found renewed purpose as a husband, father, and PCA parent.

So, you are in the middle of being traumatized and you want to continue your work in the Military?

Yes. At that time, it was the job, and it’s the job I signed up for.

Did you take Jesus with you to Afghanistan?

Very good question. I did struggle [for a time] with my walk with the Lord while I was in the Marine Corps.

I believe that the Lord is the one true God. I’ve never denied Him in any way, shape or form. And one of my heroes in the Bible is Job. With everything that that man went through and his story and everything that I went through (and am still struggling with a little bit to this day), Job is probably my biggest biblical hero because he never once denied God. As upset as he was, as angry as he was, he never denied God.

And what’s cool, looking back, I was in Mesopotamia, the very same area that some scholars believe the story of Job is set. I got to drive over the Euphrates River and the Tigris River. I got to go to Mosul, Iraq. I’ve been there.

It hits different when you’re in that part of the world—when you read it in the Bible, and then you go and visit. It’s not just Israel. When you go to Egypt, when you go to the Red Sea, when you go to Iraq where Mesopotamia was. That’s where Adam and Eve and mankind started the world. You can feel it. I remember having those feelings when I was there. I don’t want to say it was peace [that I felt], but I just knew the Lord’s presence was there.

You could tell there was a spiritual battle going on in that region, especially as one who believes in the Lord and personal attacks are coming on you. You feel this cold darkness around you. You just know there’s something going on. You kind of put in the back of your mind because there’s another [physical] battle I’m fighting that’s right in front of me.

Fast forward to Afghanistan, I never denied the Lord, but there was one thing that happened to me that made me realize, “OK, if I’m ever going to believe that he existed, it’s now.” I came back from a bad gunfight that went almost nine hours long. My buddy had been shot. I got back to my bunk and got on Facebook (where we communicate)…. I got back to the message from my wife that she was divorcing me. I read it: she’s leaving me. I’m trying not to bawl my eyes out at this time because there are other Marines around me. So, I got up, I ran out of the computer room. As soon as I was alone, I started bawling my eyes out, walking to my room and plain as day, like you and I are in this room, I heard a voice say, “Don’t worry; it’ll be okay.”

I remember looking around, and then it dawned on me: that was the Holy Spirit. That’s the only way to explain it. It was like somebody was standing next to me. It wasn’t a feeling in my heart. It wasn’t an intuition thing or my subconscious. It was a voice telling me, “Don’t worry; it’ll be okay.”

I put my weapon on my rack and went and interrupted a meeting of the company commander. My Gunnery Sergeant, D’Alesandro, looked at me. He could see I was upset. I said, “I need to talk to you.” He looked at me and then said to the group, “I’ll be right back.”

We went to his room, and I just sobbed. And as a Marine, you don’t do that. I told him what was going on. He reminded me so much of Doctor Gamble…how he approached things and how calm he was…no yelling. He liked to teach by example, which is why I trusted him and was able to be open like I was. He got me through the rest of the deployment while I struggled the last few months. I keep in touch with him to this day.

Leaving the military and coming home seems to be a difficult process for so many. You mentioned feeling lost. What did that look like for you?

I got out of the Marine Corps, went home, and I started my out-processing. I struggled with my walk with the Lord. I struggled to figure out what to do with my life. I decided to go back to Afghanistan, this time as a civilian contractor. I thought it would help me. I thought: “This is going to be my therapy. I need to get back there to make some money because I’m struggling financially as well.”

I went to Afghanistan as a civilian working for a security company hired by the U.S. government. And I toil and toil on my own. I struggled with PTSD, my mental health was declining, and I thought, “I’m going to do things on my own, my own way.” Does that work out for anybody? Not usually.

Where was the turning point for you and God?

My contract ended, and I went home. Sometime later, I met my current wife, and I realized I shouldn’t be working overseas anymore; God put a good woman in my life. We met in 2016,

got married in 2017. I now have two sons and a daughter, and they all three attend PCA. I have always wanted to be a husband and a father.

I was still trying to figure out what I wanted to do career-wise. I went from job to job and still struggled mentally. Thankfully, I have an awesome wife who supported me. I started getting help for my mental health back in 2021 and that’s when my struggle and everything started to change for the better. I ended up with a counselor who was also the head chaplain for the state of New Hampshire National Guard. As I was dealing with mental health issues from Afghanistan and with my struggle with the Lord, he was able to talk to me about both. He said you need to make it (mental health] a part of who you are and understand that it is going to get better over time, but it’s still going to be a part of you, and you need to accept that. And I started doing that. With that and getting help for my physical health, things slowly got better, but I still struggled with finding a job to provide for my family that I could succeed in and feel fulfilled with.

Fast forward now to 2024, and I finally found that career. I am now a private investigator with an insurance firm, and it’s been awesome. I’ve been looking for it for over 10 years. For a long time, I was struggling with keeping a job for more than six months and I was in the same boat as a lot of veterans. We were trying to find that “calling.” When you’ve done something as thrilling, exciting and meaningful as being in an organization like the Marine Corps and doing what we did, it’s kind of hard. You feel like you’ve already peaked. But I knew there was more for me, and that is what I kept praying for.

I had a lot of conversations with my parents and with my pastor. It was really hard for me up until recently to build the community that I needed, both for dealing with my mental health and just being able to talk about that and my spiritual health. Because spiritual health isn’t something you do on your own. You are supposed to have a community, which is why we go to church. It’s why we have Bible studies. There’s a reason why Jesus surrounded himself with other people. So, I started doing that.

I’m just coming up on my 6-month review at work. I’m doing really good. I have not been proud of myself in a very long time. I am in the best shape I have been in since my 20s. I am feeling healthy spiritually, emotionally, and physically. I am married to a wonderful wife. My kids are doing great here at PCA.

Your story is so encouraging…hearing what you’ve worked through. Thank you for your candor. The last question I have for you is: if you could lend one piece of advice to Upper School students, what would it be?

Trust the Lord and follow your heart. Those are the two biggest pieces of advice I can give to any student, especially in the Upper School. Especially the seniors and the juniors who are trying to figure out where they’re going to go, what they’re going to do. Especially for those who aren’t sure if, say, college is the right thing for them. Take advice from your parents. Take advice from your friends, your faculty, your favorite teachers. But trust the Lord and follow your heart. That’s going to guide you the most towards what you will do in your life.