Army chief in waiting - Anderson prepares to command JDF troops

Laura Redpath, Senior Gleaner Writer

In 1973, a young man fresh out of engineering school had his sights set on becoming one of the "quite impressive" officers in Jamaica's military.

Twenty-seven years later, Brigadier Antony Anderson is now one week away from being promoted to chief of defence staff of the Jamaica Defence Force (JDF).

When time runs out on his current position as deputy chief of defence staff, Anderson will take on a role that many young recruits will aspire to one day in the name of service to their country.

"I had an opportunity to come across a few military people and I thought they were quite impressive," Anderson said.

"I originally came for the challenge, and I've been fortunate in my career to have been challenged constantly. There is always the challenge to make something better."

Anderson is a graduate of Calabar High School who went on to the College of Arts, Science and Technology (now University of Technology) to study electrical engineering.

He also holds an Honours Bachelor of Engineering degree in mechanical engineering, and a Master's in Defence Administration from Cranfield University in the United Kingdom.

Anderson left Jamaica to be trained at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, in England. Upon completion of his training, he was posted to the Second Battalion The Jamaica Regiment as an infantry officer.

In 2006, Anderson was deployed to Trinidad and Tobago as the regional operations commander.

In this capacity, he was responsible for planning and executing the Caribbean region's security effort in the hosting of the Cricket World Cup in 2007.

"In a very short period of time, a very small team and I had to pull the regional security arrangements for Cricket World Cup together," said Anderson, who also said that this duty was one of his biggest challenges to date.

started from scratch

"There was really no precedent, so we started everything from scratch. We were codifying things and trying to implement them at the same time," he said.

He also said precautionary measures were taken seriously, especially in an environment that was in contrast to when the cricket bid took place in the late 1990s.

"You had 9/11, the Bali bombings, London bombings. All of a sudden the world was a different world."

Anderson, who has contributed to the JDF's partnership with The HEART Trust/National Training Agency to facilitate a broad skill set across the board within the military, is already aware of his responsibilities.

"What is required for me to do is laid out, and through continuity, we each put our own spin on things," he said with a smile.