Old soldier’s dream to serve during time of war never died

THERESA — Thomas J. Williams joined the Army in 1965 and finished his three-year commitment without ever being sent to Vietnam, despite volunteering to go.

In 1989, he joined the National Guard, but because of a health issue wasn’t deployed to the Middle East during the first Gulf War.

When his Guard unit was sent to Afghanistan in 2004, he remained stateside again because of his health.

In 2006, Mr. Williams was required to retire from the Guard, never having served in a war zone.

And yet today, Mr. Williams, 66, is an Afghan War veteran and likely one of the oldest U.S. soldiers to have served in Operation Enduring Freedom. A program that allows retired service members to return temporarily to active duty was just the ticket for an old soldier whose dream of serving in a hostile environment never died.

His age never inhibited his ability during his yearlong tour of duty in Afghanistan, which ended in October. He said many people commented on the sight of an old man in military fatigues. Some even laughed, but in the end, he said, they were impressed.

“From the Afghan soldiers, they said to me a lot, ‘You’re really old.’ I said, ‘Yeah, but I’m a mean son of a … ,” said Mr. Williams, who rose to the rank of first sergeant. “The other soldiers that worked for me, the Marines and the Italians that I was with, I would always get the comment many, many times, ‘I hope that I can do half of what you’re doing at your age, when I turn 65.’”

Mr. Williams got to Afghanistan the long way.

He joined the Army in 1965, served his mandatory three years, and returned to Jefferson County. He began a family and started working at Slack Chemical in Carthage.

But 19 years later, he said, he realized he didn’t have any retirement security, so he decided to enlist with the National Guard.

When it was time to deploy to the first Gulf War, Mr. Williams was passed over because of health problems.

He had an operation to correct those issues and in 2004, at age 58, his National Guard unit again deployed. The Army still would not give him a clean bill of health, and once again he was held back.

His spirit was crushed, Mr. Williams said. Each time his chance to fulfill his patriotic duty came up, but he was kept at home, he felt a sense of loss.

“It was so horrible. Such a horrible, terrible feeling to not be able to deploy with my troops,” he said. “I was the first sergeant and I had trained with these guys for years. I was really devastated.”

Two years later, in 2006, the Army asked him to retire.

But because of the Retiree Recall program, he was able to sign up and suit up again. On Oct. 16, 2010, he found himself on a plane headed to southern Afghanistan.

“I sent in my paperwork and next thing I knew, I received in the mail a letter that said, ‘You are ordered to report,’” he said. “That was just great news to me. I’m very patriotic and I had never served my country in a war zone. And I felt I had to. It was something I had to do.”

Mr. Williams deployed with the 10th Mountain Division’s Headquarters Battalion. He said he was given the task of moving Afghan national police and soldiers so they could complete their own missions. He was in charge of a task force of Marines, Italian soldiers and interpreters. Mr. Williams said he and the others completed more than 100 missions.

His unit had its share of danger. Early one spring morning, Mr. Williams and his task force were preparing for another routine meeting with Afghan national police and soldiers.

By 5:30 a.m., nearly 100 soldiers were lined up waiting for inspection. The line was moving slowly and everything seemed routine. Then, one soldier showed up about 30 minutes late. Sgt. Williams made a mental note: something’s off.

The checks continued, and the longer the latecomer stayed in line without moving, the more anxious he became, Mr. Williams said. Sensing the task force was on to him, the man grabbed his bag and turned to leave.

When he turned, members of the task force spotted a concealed weapon in the man’s vest.

They stopped and questioned him and in moments brought him to Mr. Williams.

“I asked him where he was going and he told me to get his bank card,” he recalled. “The interpreter told me the guy had told him that he was going to get his identification card. At that point, we checked him again and checked the bag he had with him. Inside the bag we found wires, cellphones and brand-new uniforms that had been stolen from an Afghan facility.”

Mr. Williams said he felt no anxiety about his decision to deploy. However, the same was not true for his wife of 45 years, Patricia D.

“I figured that if I didn’t think about it, it would go away and it wouldn’t happen,” Mrs. Williams said. “Until it was going to happen, I wasn’t going to deal with it.”

When the inevitable time arrived, Mrs. Williams said, she relied on her friends, neighbors and co-workers for support. She spoke with her husband regularly and tried to remain as calm as possible.

“I was extremely proud of him, because I understand why he did it,” she said. “And it wasn’t anything about me, it was about him. He just needed to go. And if it was going to work for him, I knew it was going to be OK.”

Now back in retirement from the Army and still working at Slack Chemical, Mr. Williams spends his free time creating memorabilia of his time served in Afghanistan.

“It was a dream of mine to serve during wartime,” he said. “If they called me up tomorrow and told me that they needed me to redeploy, I’d go in a heartbeat.”