COLUMBIA, S.C. - After drawing sharp criticism about whether he would honor his military commitment, Gov. Mark Sanford said Tuesday he will ship out with his Air Force Reserve unit if it is deployed.

"The bottom line for me is that I made a commitment and I am going to keep it," Sanford said in a letter to Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer. "Therefore, as to any orders I receive I will do just as anyone else in my unit and follow them."

Sanford's unit has not been notified it will be called up, said Col. Chris King, an Air Force Reserve spokesman in Charleston.

Sanford formally announced his candidacy for governor in March 2001. He gained his commission as a first lieutenant in the 315th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron on Jan. 30, 2002, and critics accused him of using military service for political gain.

A month ago, Sanford wasn't so sure about how he'd honor his obligations. At the time, he said he thought his squadron, stationed at Charleston Air Force Base, would be deployed to the Middle East before June.

"I can't go with them," he said then. "I'm trying to figure out where we go from here. ... By virtue of the fact I'm governor, I've moved into a nondeployable status."

Sanford had said he might resign his commission.

On Tuesday, however, his tone was decidedly different.

"I've always done what I said I would do," Sanford said in his letter to Bauer.

"In the event my unit is activated, I have full confidence in your abilities along with those of (House) Speaker (David) Wilkins and Sen. (Glenn) McConnell," Sanford wrote to Bauer.

"Should that happen, I will work closely with each of you to ensure that the agenda I laid out for our state last week is fulfilled," Sanford wrote, alluding to his State of the State speech last Wednesday.

"I think he has to do what he is comfortable with," said McConnell, a Charleston Republican and Senate president pro tem.

The governor "took a brave stand and made the right decision," said Wilkins, R-Greenville. "He is a man of honor and integrity, and I applaud the message he is sending about the importance of duty and service to our great nation at this critical time in our history."

Sanford has met weekend drill obligations since taking his commission a year ago.

He has not completed a two-week reserve commission officer training course, which is offered twice a year, nor a health services administrator course, said Debra Baldwin, a spokeswoman at the Charleston Air Force Reserve office. Sanford could spend 11 weeks at Maxwell Air Base completing the requirements or take up to a year to finish through a correspondence course, Baldwin said.

She could not immediately say whether Sanford would be allowed to deploy with the squadron without completing either training requirement.

Sanford was not immediately available for comment, but his spokesman Chris Drummond said the governor would discuss the issue Wednesday.

Drummond would not immediately answer a question about whether Sanford can continue to serve in the reserve.

According to the state constitution: "No person while governor shall hold any office or other commission (except in the militia) under the authority of this state, or of any other power." The constitution's description of militia is consistent with the state's National Guard, which the governor controls, not the U.S. Air Force Reserve.

"I think that the militia and the way the reserves have grown ... the militia incorporates him," McConnell said. "I do not think that's a problem."