BLACK HISTORY MONTH BC ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT: CAPT Christopher Williams '97, USN

“Benedictine Military School is a phenomenal place. It’s a phenomenal place. There’s no question about that. Great people. Benedictine is a great environment that allows boys a chance to find themselves without the external pressures and teaches them how to be leaders in the community. The great thing is I still have a text chain with some of the friends that I graduated high school with. You don’t typically have that, particularly when you’re not living in the (same) city. But we still manage to keep in touch with each other and check in, see how the school is doing, and just be involved with each other’s lives. Benedictine teaches you brotherhood. That’s a big thing that sometimes can get lost, the character trait of being loyal to each other, making sure that you’re checking in on each other and holding each other accountable for what you’re supposed to be achieving. I think that’s a lot of what BC taught me in terms of going through life. Being loyal and buying in and selling out to something. I think that’s a trait that a lot of people are afraid of in this day and age.

“Mrs. Ledford, she did all the math when I was there. Calculus and stuff like that. She definitely challenged us. I thought that was fantastic. There were quite a few people. Coach (Tommy) Cannon, when he was teaching us basketball, really taught us a lot of life lessons. One of the things that I did truly appreciate about BC was they took on the holistic approach. Learning was not just in the classroom. A lot of learning was done with athletic teams and that was good. LTC (John Manson) Owens (III ’61) and JRTOC, that was great. I loved how they gave you a nurturing, honest approach there. They would tell you when you just needed to get better. In this day and age, that’s even hard to tell youngsters that you’re not meeting the standards. You need to get better. That used to be daily discussions, I felt like, for me. I’m not meeting your standard. Got it. And you walk out of there with your head down, but you come back and fight another day. They taught a lot of that, where they did put their arm around you and tell you that you just need to work harder. BC was about teaching youngsters how to continue to stay in the fight and get better and not get in their feelings. It was an institution that, at least when I went through, was definitely about that. I was able to bring my wife (Joan Fallon Williams) and kid (Dean) back there within the last two years and show them (BC). The thing I remember most was morning meetings in the (Academic) Well. That was pretty cool, just to be able to get everybody in the school there and have announcements, talk about things, getting ready for wearing jerseys on Fridays for the games. I loved playing four square after lunchtime. I thought that was really cool. You could just be a kid. Nobody worried about what the girls thought while you were at school. You were learning and you were learning how to be a brother, learning how to academically be there. And I valued my religious studies while I was there. That’s key for my fundamental understanding of not just myself but also what I value and how I lead as a person. That’s key for me, particularly when you make decisions that can change the path of people’s lives.”

Captain Christopher Williams, a native of Savannah, Ga., graduated in 2001 from the United States Naval Academy (Mechanical Engineering). He graduated from the Naval Postgraduate School in 2008 (Executive Master of Business Administration). In July 2010, he graduated from the Command & Staff College at Marine Corps University (Master of Military Studies). In December 2023, CAPT Williams graduated from the Nuclear Power School, Nuclear Power Training Unit, and the Naval Reactor Prospective Commanding Officer Course.

CAPT Williams’ sea tours include Strike Fighter Squadron ONE NINE FIVE (VFA-195), 7th Fleet AOR as squadron operations and maintenance officer; Strike Fighter Squadron ONE THREE SIX (VFA-136), 5th Fleet AOR executing combat operations in support of ENDURING FREEDOM. As commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron ONE ONE FIVE (VFA-115), 7th Fleet AOR completed five deployments onboard the USS Ronald Reagan as forward deployed naval forces (FDNF).

CAPT Williams’ shore tours include instructor pilot duty at Strike Fighter Squadron ONE TWO FIVE (VFA-125); Flag Aide to Commander, Naval Air Forces; Join and Combined Warfighting School at the Joint Forces Staff College; Joint Chiefs of Staff J-7, Joint Force Development, Joint Doctrine Analysis Division. Assigned as the Joint Doctrine Targeting subject matter expert, he was responsible for developing joint doctrine and multinational doctrine for combatant commands, joint staffs, combat support agencies, and services.

CAPT Williams' last tour was as Director, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for Commander, Naval Air Forces in December 2022. CAPT Williams has amassed more than 3,000 flight hours and more than 700 arrested landings in the F/A-18. His personal decorations include the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, Meritorious Service Medal (two awards), Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal (two awards), Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards), National Defense Service Medal, the Joint Chiefs of Staff Identification Badge, and various service awards and ribbons.

CAPT Williams reported as the executive officer, USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) in March 2024.

“That was a blast. We had a lot of fun playing there. We ended up going to the NCAA Tournament once. It’s funny, I was at a (basketball) tournament for my son in Charleston not too long ago and (former University of North Carolina basketball star) Antawn Jamison was there. We played against each other, and our sons were playing against each other, and so we took a picture real quick. The last time that we saw each other was in Connecticut, playing against each other (on March 12, 1998). It was kind of fun. The world is not that large. So, yeah, I had the opportunity to play basketball at the Academy and that was a lot of fun. Made it to the (NCAA) Tournament once, all-conference player for three years, made it into the hall of fame for the Academy. Ended as the sixth-leading scorer but now I think I’m like No. 9 among the all-time leading scorers there. It was a blast. It was a great opportunity. I learned a lot.

“After the Academy, I started flight school down in Pensacola, Fla., and then ended up selecting to fly jets. I fly F-18s, Super Hornets, and it’s been a blast. That’s really cool. As soon as I finished all the training, the first squadron that I went to was in Japan. My wife, I met her while I was at the Academy and we ended up getting married in 2005. We ended up moving to Japan. That was definitely interesting at that young of an age to be able to go over there and work over there. We lived there for three years and then we ended up coming back to the States, to the west coast. We were on the west coast for a little while. I was doing a lot of instructing, flying, being an instructor pilot, and then I went to work at our headquarters. Did a couple of other tours, flying jobs, and now we’ve finally made it back to the east coast. Virginia Beach, Va., is where we’re at right now.

“We have one kid. He’s a sophomore. Just turned 17. He’s a big kid. He’s trying to figure out what he wants. He’s playing basketball and loving it. Playing ball up here in the mid-Atlantic, there’s some really good basketball to be played. He’s doing great. He’s doing fantastic. He says he wants to play college basketball and then he says after his career in the pros he’s going to work for the intelligence community for the CIA. I said, ‘That’s cool. That’s very specific. That’s good.’”

“We have 2,500 people that work on the ship right now. We just got back (from sea) yesterday. As one of the newest aircraft carriers in the world, we get a lot of attention. We just had our congressional delegation visits. We entertain a lot of the congressmen and senators, particularly prior to budget season. As we get closer to deployment, probably in the middle of the year, we’ll get a little bit busier in terms of making sure everybody is taken care of, and we have everything we need. And then we’ll go out there and who knows? That’s one of the beautiful things that I tell people every day, ‘Just watch the news and your life might change.’ I’m happy with the current situation going on in the Middle East right now in terms of the Israel-Hamas conflict. We’re getting a lot of the hostages released and that’s great. We may or may not go over there. We’ll see.

“But definitely we still have things going on in the European Theater that we’re interested in. We’ll probably find ourselves going up a little bit north and getting over to Europe to support as needed. It’s always interesting. One of the things is constantly monitoring what the news cycle and what the world is doing. It changes your aspect. You look at the news a little bit differently. That’s one of the things we have to look forward to. In the next few years, because we rotate every few years, I’ll take command of an amphibious ship in probably January of next year. And, hopefully, I can come back and take command of an aircraft carrier, probably one of the newer aircraft carriers. That’s kind of what’s on the horizon for us. And, more importantly, hopefully, watch my kid play a little bit of basketball. I’m pretty excited about that.”