When First Sergeant Anthony Bell was approaching graduation at Greenville’s O’Bannon High School back in the early ‘90s, he and a group of friends made a pact.
Each of them resolved to join the Army National Guard.
Bell was not raised in a military family, but he and his friends saw this as a way to pay for college.
It did not take long for Bell and his training officers to realize that he was born to lead.
“Out of everyone, I was the only one who decided to go to active duty,” Bell, now the Senior Army Instructor at Gentry High School’s JROTC program said during an interview with The Enterprise-Tocsin. “When I was in the tenth grade, I was captain of the football team. I always had that leadership (component),
Bell said he was chosen to be the platoon guide during basic training.
“Right out of the gate, this guy saw leadership in me and said I was going to be a platoon guide,” he said.
Bell was born and raised in Greenville. He officially left the Delta in 1991, just after Operation Desert Storm had completed.
It would be a little over a decade before he would see action during Operation Iraqi Freedom. During the decade that followed, he would be deployed three times, once to Iraq and twice to Afghanistan.
He would also serve as the senior military instructor at the University of Mississippi, where he commissioned 119 lieutenants from 2004 to 2008.
One-on-one, he is far from the Hollywood stereotype drill sergeants. He’s actually soft-spoken, although he’ll tell you he can get loud and assertive with his Gentry cadets when he has to.
“You don’t have to be a loud person to get your point across,” he said. “But when my voice changes, they know they have disappointed me…A lot of times, you can be silent and make a bigger difference.”
Bell was first stationed in Germany when he went on active duty. While in Europe, he had the opportunity to visit several countries, including England and Italy.
When he returned to the States, he was stationed at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas, just across the border from Mexico.
He served two stints in Colorado and at Fort Campbell in Kentucky with the 101st Airborne division.
Bell was among the first boots on the ground when troops crossed the border into Iraq in 2003.
“You’ll spend months creating this plan, and when it’s time to execute and as soon as you cross the line, 90% of that plan is busted,” Bell said. “Your training is for you to be able to react to 10% of what you trained for.”
Bell led a reconnaissance platoon of 18 men.
“We might set up for two weeks, observing, gathering intelligence and developing a battlefield for a commander,” Bell said.
Bell arrived back in the states in 2004, almost exactly a year after the first air strikes in that conflict started.
Later that year, Bell received a congressional appointment to become the senior military instructor at the University of Mississippi.
“I didn’t realize how big of a deal it was while I was in the moment, but once I got out of there…There’s only 270 schools, so you’re one NCO out of 270 that got selected,” Bell said.
The typical three-year appointment actually turned into a fourth year, giving his son the opportunity to graduate with his class from Oxford High School.
It would be two more years before Bell would be deployed again, this time to Afghanistan in 2010.
Less than a decade after helping to lead the invasion of Iraq, Bell said the majority of the soldiers under his command in Afghanistan were Iraqis.
“I had 100 Iraqi soldiers,” Bell said. “I only had 90 of my soldiers. Then I had 30 security police that were Iraqi…I might leave with 50 guys, and I’ve got 35 to 40 left there with 130 Iraqis, inside my walls.”
The missions in Afghanistan were tedious as well, often involving night driving on steep mountain roads, as much as 10,000 feet above sea level.
For the better part of three decades, Bell had not been to the Delta other than weekend trips to visit his family.
Things changed in 2020 when his mother became ill.
Bell, living then in Columbus, Ga. with his new bride, made the decision that it was time to come home.
“When you’ve been gone that long, it’s hard to come back,” Bell said.
Although he was away from home for decades, Bell
said his time in the Army has allowed him to be able to take care of his immediate family and his mother.
He recently purchased her a home in Greenville.
“Out of all of the things I’ve done in my life, the greatest thing I ever did was drop those keys in my momma’s hand,” Bell said. “That’s a big deal.”
He is now imparting the lessons he learned in life and in the military to the Gentry JROTC cadets.
“People think JROTC is about trying to get people to go into the military,” Bell said. “Man, I could care less. I’m an Army guy, but I understand
that in today’s Army, without education, you’re not going to make it… It’s about citizenship. You’re trying to make the kid a better citizen for their community and for the United States.”
Bell said he spends a lot of time teaching his cadets about public speaking, business, how to be a professional, health and fitness, diversity and preparing for college or a career.
“At least twice a month, they’re taking practice ACTs. I need to get your scores up. I need to make you know that you’re competitive with other people,” he said.
Bell said he currently has about 91 kids in his program. He said his vision is to grow that to about 120.
“The vision to set the proper image, so that when people see Gentry JROTC, they see a standard,” he said. “When we go out and compete, I’m not saying we’re going to win everything, but I need you to compete.”
Bell said he hopes to expose his students to other places and cultures to help prepare them for the world beyond high school in the Delta.
It’s a world he knows very well, thanks to his service to his country.
