Mike "Mac" McNamara hadn't stepped down from public service as Grand Forks City Council member for more than a week before announcing that he was embarking on another kind of service, with the First Marine Regiment.
The KNOX radio talk show host and major in the reserves is headed for Afghanistan's Helmand Province. That would make it his third combat tour since the start of the War on Terror.
The last two times, he was in the Iraqi cities of Ramadi and Fallujah, scenes of some of the most intense fighting of the war. In fact, he ran for office in the city's Ward 2 in 2006 entirely from Fallujah, with help from friends and family, especially wife Susan and their four children.
"I get asked all the time, 'Why would you go back a third time? You've done your share,'" he said. "I wish people could see the courage and selflessness of the young American marines and soldiers and sailors that I get to see. It has an effect on you that you don't get over."
"For me the thought of being able to serve my country again, in combat, to be able to do that is something that's a tremendous honor," he said. "I tell people, 'No, no, I don't have to go; I want to go.'"
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As much as McNamara loves the U.S. Marines, that love is reciprocated. They can't wait for the 52-year-old to come back.
While he was in office, he said he was asked to serve twice and had to say "no." Well, it was more of a "maybe." McNamara recalls asking "How bad do you need me?" because if it was bad enough, he'd resign from the council. They said "not that bad."
Since his friend of 20 years, regimental commander Col. David Furness, learned that he was stepping down, there'd been more talk of coming back.
This time, McNamara said "yes."
"It's not an organization you can turn your back on," he said.
His family has been very supportive, he said, because they know that next to being husband and father, being a marine is the most important thing to him.
And they've been through this twice before when he was in Iraq for a total of 20 months. This next deployment will be for 12, he said.
When he was on the second tour, his youngest, Colleen, was just 2½. Now, she's 6½.
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"She'll come and ask me questions like 'Are you going to the war? What do you do in the war? Are you going to be OK?'" he said. "It's not lost on her. She watches TV."
In Afghanistan, McNamara will be doing roughly what he did in Fallujah, which is running the combat information center. He said it's like the county emergency operations center during the flood, except it's for war.
But, because of his experience as a council member, a member of the city's economic development committee and a talk show host, he said the Marines want him to help out with the civil affairs side of things in Afghanistan.
"I'm looking forward to it," he said. "You read a lot about what's going on over there. Until you've been there and lived there for a while you have a different view of it."
When he was in Iraq, he'd read about the supposed lack of progress, he said, but progress was just much slower and more difficult than reporters who haven't lived there a while could comprehend.
McNamara leaves for Camp Pendleton, Calif., on Monday before heading for Afghanistan.
Reach Tran at (701) 780-1248; (800) 477-6572, ext. 248; or send e-mail to ttran@gfherald.com .
