Williams retires from U.S. Air Force

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Lt. Col. Richard Williams, U.S. Air Force, served his last day on active duty Tuesday, July 7, retiring after more than 20 years of military service. He was presented with the Meritorious Service Medal during a ceremony conducted at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado.

Williams is a Bureau County native. He graduated from the former Western High School in Buda in 1989 and then enlisted in the U.S. Army, where he served in the Army’s Military Intelligence Corps as a Russian translator and intelligence analyst. He left the Army after six years, received a master’s degree in criminal justice from Illinois State University in 1996 and then went on to receive a law degree from Northern Illinois University in 1999. He worked for the LaSalle County State’s Attorney’s office after graduating law school until he joined the Air Force as a judge advocate in 2001.

Williams focused on various areas of the law while in the Air Force to include criminal, contracts, environmental and civil law issues. He performed duties as a senior military prosecutor and defense attorney and received appointments as a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney by the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Louisiana and later by the U.S. Attorney for Colorado.

Williams’ duty stations included Schofield Barracks, Hawaii; Fort Hood, Texas; Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.; Barksdale Air Force Base, La.; and Peterson Air Force Base, Colo. He completed his career while assigned to Headquarters, Air Force Space Command, where he served as chief of criminal actions for an organization of more than 46,000 personnel performing space and cyberspace missions at locations across the globe. He provided oversight on all adverse criminal legal actions within the command.

Williams deployed several times during his career. His first deployment was to an undisclosed location in the Persian Gulf area in 2008-09, where he performed duties as the sole legal advisor to an air base providing combat and surveillance support into both Iraq and Afghanistan. He also deployed for 12 months to Afghanistan in 2011-12, where he was assigned to the Headquarters, U.S. Forces Afghanistan, providing legal support to the senior U.S. forces commander, Army General David Petraeus, and later Marine General John Allen. He was the primary legal advisor for all base closure operations and was the Afghanistan-wide legal lead on all large scale acquisition, construction and humanitarian projects. He provided legal reviews on more than 400 acquisition and construction requests worth $5 billion. His review of all projects identified $45 million in savings. The senior legal counsel for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff praised his efforts as “perfect!”

Williams’ military decorations include the Bronze Star, Meritorious Service Medal, Army and Air Force Commendation Medals, and the Joint Service Achievement Medal.

Regarding his future plans, Williams stated the sky’s the limit. He has been in contact with a number of federal agencies, to include the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Attorney’s Offices.

“The military has provided me with endless opportunities, but it came at the cost of having to relocate to a new duty station every two to three years, so foremost in my planning is to find a steady and safe place to finish raising my children, our ‘forever home,’” he said. “I can’t think of anywhere better to call home than Bureau County surrounded by friends and family. In that light, I will be running for Bureau County State’s Attorney next year on the Republican ticket.”