Alumni Stories: Aaron Anderson

At PCA, we often talk about the impact our graduates have on the world beyond our campus. Aaron Anderson, Class of 2006, is a shining example—living a life of service, leadership, and deep commitment to his family and community. As a husband, father of three PCA students, veteran, donor, and active volunteer, Aaron remains closely connected to the school that played a significant role in shaping his journey.

In this two-part interview, Aaron reflects on his time as a student, what led him to PCA, and the experiences—both joyful and harrowing—that have defined his life since graduation. From his first day on campus to his military service overseas, Aaron’s story is one of resilience, purpose, and enduring ties to a school that continues to be a part of his family’s life.

Tell me when you started at PCA and how that journey began for you and your family.

I came here for high school in 2002. I went to private school my entire life up to that point, but the school I was going to didn’t have a high school. Along with prayer, that is what led my parents to PCA. I believe they made a great decision.

I have 3 children who now attend PCA. It’s a family affair. My mother picks the kids up one or two days a week and attends all the events. Same with my father who joins online. They are both very supportive of PCA still. I volunteer my time at the school as often as I can. These PCA kids and their families mean a lot to me. This school takes great care of these students and I am honored to be a part of it. I cannot think of a better place to send my own kids.

Do you remember coming here for the first time [as an applicant] and your feelings about that experience?

I remember that day. In fact, that was when the high school was in the basement of the Lower School building before the Upper School was built. I met a few guys who quickly became my best friends, which solidified my feelings about the school. I remember going home with my parents and saying, “I want to go here.”

Are there people or memories that stand out to you from your time here as a student?

Dr. Gamble, Dr. Lawrence, and Mr. Beal…people who are still at PCA from 20 years ago, which is a great thing. You don’t see that a lot in other schools.

Dr. Gamble was a huge influence on me, both academically and as a person. He inspired me. He instilled wisdom and was always available for me to pick his brain. The way he taught and his passion for it to this day still influences how I do my research and seek information. In a school that was very college-driven, he never discouraged my plans to join the military. He understood that sometimes you have to do something else, especially when you feel that it’s your calling.

I grew up in a military family. My father was Air Force. My grandfather was in the Army. I have great-uncles who were Marines. So, it was something I’d wanted to do since I was a kid, and then 9/11 happened. I was 14 years old and in 8th grade. Had I been 17 years old that day, I probably would have dropped out of school and joined the military the following week. It felt very personal to me, and Dr. Gamble had nothing discouraging to say about what I felt was my calling.

I wasn’t the typical PCA graduate going after a college degree, or a church type of student, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to do this interview. I know not every PCA student is that kind of student and there are some who have struggled. For some, it may take two, three years or 10 years to find their calling—both with the Lord and in their personal life.

Where did life take you after graduating from PCA?

As I was graduating from PCA, I knew I wanted to take one summer off to be with my friends, get a summer job, and have one last real summer because I wasn’t sure what my future held. So I worked and played and enjoyed my friends before saying goodbye to begin bootcamp in August 2006. I graduated from boot camp in October, and as the EGA (Eagle, Globe and Anchor) was placed in my hand and the drill instructors looked at me with pride, I realized it was done and over with. I was a Marine. That was a big deal for me and that defined a lot of who I am today.

After bootcamp, where did they send you?

I went to Camp Pendleton in California in March of 2007. That was nice because I had family out there. In September, my unit was in Iraq at the time. I showed up in what’s called rear detachment. I was in Iraq that September. At that time, my unit was the most-deployed individual company in the entire Marine Corps. We did back-to-back tours from 2003 to 2010. Seven months in, five months back pretty much the whole time.

There are two sides to the military police. You’ve got what we call Provost Marshall’s office, which is the police side of things, where Marines are doing traditional police work like your local police department. They stop people for speeding and running lights, and they respond to thefts and break-ins.

Then you have the field side of the job. Those Marines are shooting machine guns, driving the Humvees, MRAPs (mine-resistant ambush protected), and they deploy. On my first tour, we performed base security foot patrols. Then on my second tour, we did convoy security, protecting convoys moving from base to base. When I returned in April 2009, I got married (to a fellow PCA alumna, class of 2007).

My unit was slated to deploy to Afghanistan in September 2009 and support the push in Marjah, Afghanistan (by push I mean, the Marine Corps was tasked with taking the city from the Taliban and my unit was supporting that). I was happy to be going to Afghanistan because that’s why I joined. Based on what happened to Tom McGinnis’ father and 9/11 and everything, I wanted to go to Afghanistan. In fact, I joined the military because I wanted to get in the fight. Like a lot of Americans back then, I wanted payback, especially because up here in the New England region, it was hard not to know somebody (or know somebody who knew somebody) who was affected by 9/11. President Obama wanted to do a troop production. So long story short, my platoon commander came to me and said I was not going on this deployment. I instead stayed and trained the new Marines coming in. I was a little upset about that. But you know, obviously I really had no choice. So, me and 30 Marines helped train up new Marines.

Then February of 2010, one of my sergeants calls us all in for a meeting with him and says, “Third battalion 5th Marines is going to Afghanistan in August. They are setting up some police advisor teams to help train the Afghan police. They need 12 MP’s for this team. Who wants to go?” I raised my hand. There was no discussion. I completed the pre-deployment trainings and went to Afghanistan. This is where my life changed… for both good and bad.

My previous two deployments in Iraq, I didn’t see anything. During the span of 14 months, 70,000 miles driven, there was only one improvised explosive device that hit one of our vehicles and it blew out a tire. We didn’t lose anybody, and nobody caught any major injuries except busted eardrums.

Fast forward to my tour in Afghanistan and it was a completely different beast. The area where we were going was where the British had been for four or five years at that time. They had lost a third of the guys. It became what’s known as The Fallujah of Afghanistan.

We deployed roughly 800 Marines. We became the unit with the most casualties of any Marine Corps unit deployed to Afghanistan up to that time. We ended up with 25 killed in action and 220 wounded. We had to go through all our replacements who were back in California, and we had to take individual replacements from other units. I lost a good friend of mine. He was killed in front of me. I saw things that a lot of people shouldn’t see. On top of that, at the exact same time, my wife sent me a message that she was leaving me.

Long story short: I am fighting Taliban by day and sending my reenlistment package in by night. I found out all the slots were filled so I couldn’t reenlist where I thought. So, I applied for another job, but there were no jobs for lance corporals. So, after we did our job in Afghanistan, I found myself out of the Military, and not wanting to be out of the Military, and I felt lost.

Stay tuned: Part 2 of Aaron’s interview will continue and be live on our blog on May 13, 2025 – and you won’t want to miss it!