The call to serve
By James Allen | Entertainment Editor
It was 1970. I knew I was going to get drafted. I was single, 19-years old and fully qualified. So I went down and talked to the Air Force recruiter and told him I wanted to get into police work.
Vietnam was going on, and I wanted to make a choice. I wanted to decide on what I was going to do and I had been looking at the Air Force for sometime. I knew I was right for the draft.
So I volunteered for the Air Force and signed a contract to go into the security forces.
Dr. Dennis Williams is a man of many trades and talents. Currently he has three on-going careers: Associate Professor of criminal justice at the University of Indianapolis, a criminal attorney with his own practice near his home in Lebanon and Command Chief of the 181st Intelligence Wing in Terre Haute. Williams was married to his wife at age 19 right before shipping. They are still married today.
The ironic thing is that in my third week of basic training, my mom sent me a letter that I had received my draft notice. I had been drafted into the Marine Corp.
Fortunately for me, I was already in the military.
I did six years in security forces with the Air Force. I was initially stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, Texas, with a detachment [that] had four B 52s [bombers] that were fully loaded with nukes, which we guarded. I was there about a year.
Williams served the rest of his first six years in the military at a base in northern Turkey and as reserve in the states. His military contract ended in 1976. He admits that he still wanted to do more in the military. From there, Williams began his civilian aspirations in law enforcement.
I started working for the local police department, and I had contacted the reserve recruiter because I was still interested. Nobody followed up. I also got going into my undergraduate, and I continued on the sheriff’s department. When I left the sheriff’s department and went to the law enforcement academy, one of the guys I worked with was with the [Air Force] guard unit in Terre Haute. I didn’t even know they existed.
I still kind of had an itch for the military.
Williams re-enlisted with the Air Force and was assigned to the 181st in 1984, keeping the same rank after a nine-year hiatus. In 2004, Williams was promoted to Command Chief, and currently oversees approximately 1,000 soldiers. He is an active E-9, the highest enlisted rank. The rank is limited to only 1 percent of the entire military.
I used to think of the Guard as a bunch of fat guys that sat around an army base for a weekend. In the current conflict we’ve got going on, 51 percent of the forces are guard or reserve.
Williams put in the order to request for his retirement on Sept. 9, 2001, but after the fateful events on Sept. 11, Williams felt his call to serve his country grow even stronger.
Our base got really active, really quick.
They launched our jets that day, and two of them escorted Air Force One as it was headed back to Washington D.C. Then for a few days our jets flew a cap over Chicago in case something else happened.
The 181st has since become an intelligence wing with an array of new operations aiding the war effort. But ever since 9/11, Williams has elected to stay in the service until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 60.
I’ve always wanted to serve my country, and I had an excellent opportunity. Now that we are going into these new missions, it gives me a chance, gives this group a chance, to play a key part in providing military service for our country.
I will never regret it.
The day I actually walk off the base for the last time, I’ll probably go kicking and screaming. It’s a community down there.
I’ll probably never retire. Some people are capable of retiring and just putzing around the house for the rest of their life. That would drive me nuts.
