Mark Anderson, right, husband of Brittani and father of Aiden, 23 months, will deploy today for his third tour of duty in a war zone. He will head to Afghanistan with the 4th Brigade Combat Team in the Army's 82nd Airborne Division.

When Mark Anderson joined the Army in 2003, he had no idea that four years later he would be serving his third tour of duty in a war zone.

He knows he has only himself to blame.

“I enlisted to go to combat. I wanted to be G.I. Joe,” the Lawrence native said. “I thought it would be like the movies, and I was wrong.”

Today, Anderson, 22, ends an 18-day visit with his family and heads to Afghanistan to rejoin the 4th Brigade Combat Team in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division.

In 2004 and again in 2005, Anderson’s unit was sent to Iraq to serve short, but busy four-month deployments where the paratroopers fought insurgents in some of the country’s most violent regions.

This past January, Anderson, a staff sergeant who joined the Army after graduating from Lawrence High School in 2003, was deployed to Afghanistan. He said he doesn’t know when this tour will wrap up and he can rejoin his wife, Brittani, and his young son, Aiden. He will miss his son’s second birthday in September.

Brittani and Mark were married three years ago. She was well aware of what life would be like married to a soldier. Her father, Bill Howell, recently retired after a career in the Marines. Now living in New Orleans, Howell once worked at Kansas University’s Dole Institute of Politics and helped organize the institute’s dedication events in 2003.

“I was used to it,” Brittani said of having a loved one in the military.

Mark Anderson’s return to duty means more days of training Afghan Army and police units, patrolling, dealing with provincial government leaders and setting up traffic checkpoints, among other duties.

He said he thinks that work is paying off. Most civilians welcome American soldiers, and the Afghan Army and police are getting better at their jobs, he said.

“There are some hard-core guys who truly want to make their country better,” he said. “They don’t like the Taliban. Then there are guys who just want to get their paychecks.”

Anderson expressed irritation at the news media, which he said is interested in reporting on the bad things that happen while ignoring the good. He said he realizes providing food, water and meeting other needs of Afghan civilians doesn’t increase readership or TV audiences.

“I’m sure that isn’t the most exciting thing to put in the news, but at least every once in awhile they could report some of this stuff,” he said.

Anderson said that so far he hasn’t been in any serious firefights in Afghanistan, but he was in a Humvee when it was struck by an improvised explosive device. He declines to say much about it, other than the three other soldiers in the vehicle were wounded but survived.

“I was probably the luckiest of them all,” he said. “I smacked my head around; my jaw was a little messed up; I hyper-extended my elbow and I bruised my forearm.”

Anderson still has another four years in the Army before he has to decide whether to continue his military career. He already knows what he’ll do.

“I think I’ve done my share and had my fun,” he said. “I think I’m ready to calm down and get a nice, quiet job.”