Last Friday night, a large crowd gathered at the Griswold-Terry-Glover American Legion Post 803 to honor Lt. Col. Charles Sanders on the eve of his fourth overseas deployment in 15 years.
This time, the town tax assessor and longtime serviceman is bound for the Middle East, where he’ll serve for nine months to a year.
“I came here just to thank Charles,” said Town Supervisor Al Krupski from the podium. “We shouldn’t take the freedoms we have in this country for granted, because people like you are willing to go and disrupt your lives and serve us.”
Krupski said in an interview before the event that as commander of the American Legion post for six and a half years, Sanders “made such a big impact. His enthusiasm and dedication to the post is really wonderful to see. It takes a rare individual who can do that — and then go serve overseas.”
Among those on hand Friday night to say goodbye to the 57-year-old military vet were Peter Kranes and his wife Claire Manning Kranes, who bought a house from Sanders decades ago and became close friends.
“I will think about him every night now he’s deployed,” Kranes said. “But I know he’s doing what he wants to and serving our country. There are a lot of patriots in this world, none that I know as well as Charles and none that I know that are as genuine as he is and as humble.”
Sanders’ military career spans decades, stretching from his U.S. Marine Corps Reserve service in the early 1990s through his current deployment. In 2010, he deployed to Afghanistan as a battle captain with the Vermont Army National Guard and returned there for a second tour with the New York Army National Guard in 2012. In 2015, he served at Guantanamo Bay, where he earned his Master Scuba Diver certification during his off-hours.
His stateside service has taken him from Texas to Staten Island. And while the deployments are demanding, Sanders calls the travel part of the allure.
“It’s like an insatiable appetite,” he said. “Like people who love sky diving or scuba diving. Having a base to return to is key, but the adventure keeps you going.”
He said he has never had to fire his weapon in combat.
“I’ve been blessed in all my deployments,” he said. “I never had to shoot my weapon, never had to take a life. Never engaged in an [improvised explosive device] event. A lot of these things happen, and I’m blessed that I don’t have those kinds of direct memories that other service members have.”
Still, the return to civilian life could be a transition, especially earlier in his career. After Afghanistan, he struggled to adjust to driving again in Southold. “You wake up, go to work — and you don’t worry about your car being blown up.”
He recalled early post-deployment phantom fears of having lost his weapon. “That happens to everybody.”
In 2002, Sanders earned a master’s degree in Liberal Studies from SUNY Stony Brook, and it was during his first deployment that he began to feel a deeper intellectual hunger.
“I had a cursory understanding of 9/11, and frankly, I was there in Afghanistan thinking, ‘I don’t really 100% understand why we’re here.’”
That realization launched a personal campaign of study and self-education. In 2017, he completed a master’s in American History from Norwich University in Vermont.
Sitting in a courtroom observation room at Guantanamo left a deep impression on him.
“You could see the 9/11 terrorists right there at the desks, each with a litany of lawyers and people working on their behalf. So it was fascinating. Our guys would have gotten their heads cut off, and we give them lawyers.”
Raised poor, the son of a single mother in West Chicago, Sanders said his upbringing gave him drive.
““That kind of environment motivated me, because I want to excel. I want to be in a better and stronger environment. You do that by just rolling up your sleeves and working hard, regardless of the obstacles.”
He’s critical of what he sees as a modern culture of excuse-making.
“Kids are taught that ‘it’s not your fault that you’re in this mess.’ For some that may be true, but it’s your duty to get out of it.”
Sanders said he trained his mind to manage fear. Intimidated by public speaking, he forced himself to give speeches at high schools. Afraid of heights, he climbed ladders to paint houses and earned qualifications from Airborne and Air Assault schools.
In 2017, he created a public presentation titled “History of 9/11: A Soldier’s Experience,” exploring the geopolitical forces behind the attacks and talking about his time in Guantanamo Bay.
“He wants to be a good role model,” said his wife, Alina Lan Sanders, a nurse at Peconic Bay Medical Center and a captain in the Air Force Reserve. “‘Be the best version of yourself’ — I think that’s what he practices.”
Sanders first visited the North Fork in his late 20s and decided to move here. He arranged to paint a local apartment complex in exchange for free rent. He arrived with $100, a credit card, and a truck full of painting gear — only to find the kitchen plumbing wasn’t installed and the shower was a gutted pipe.
“It was a train wreck,” he said with a laugh. “But I cleaned it up, made a bed, and got to work.”
By 1999, he became a licensed real estate agent, eventually founding C. Sanders & Associates in Greenport. The couple were married in 2018, and share two beloved cats — Evelyn and Genesis.
The Southold Republican is running for re-election as town tax accessor this fall.