John C. “Chuck” Williams, Navigator
17th SOS, Tuy Hoa and Phu Cat, 1969-70
A native of San Diego, Chuck Williams was raised in California’s “Inland Empire” and on the deserts of Southern California. Assigned to the 17th Special Operations Squadron, 14th Special Operations Wing in the Republic of Vietnam from December 1969 to November 1970, Williams earned the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) and six Air Medals while flying 150 aerial combat missions in AC-119G “Shadow” gunships stationed at Tuy Hoa and Phu Cat Air Bases. His training from January 1968 to November 1969 included Officer Training School at Lackland AFB Medina Annex, Texas; Navigator Training at Mather AFB, California; C-119 Gunship Combat Crew Training at Clinton County and Lockbourne AFBs in Ohio; and Survival Schools at Fairchild AFB, Washington and Clark AFB, Philippines.
Upon returning stateside from Vietnam, Williams was assigned to the 313th Tactical Airlift Wing at Forbes AFB, Kansas as Base Chief of Administration from Dec 1970 to Sep 1973.
Williams served as Chief of Project Support, USAF “Project Forecast II”, AFSC from April ’85 to June ’86 after which he was assigned as Chief, Information Systems Division, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs, HQ AFSC. From December 1986 to April 1988, Williams was detailed from the USAF as Special Assistant to the Deputy Staff Director for the President’s Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution at the White House in Washington D.C.
Following his tour of active duty, Chuck joined the 1988 Republican National Convention Staff in New Orleans, Louisiana, and after the election, he served on the Presidential Inaugural Committee Staff in Washington, D.C. In 1989, he received a Presidential appointment to the National Park Service, and was sent on special assignment to California to manage the base closure and transfer of the Army’s Presidio of San Francisco to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
In November 2001 following the September 11th Attack on America, Williams became project director for Freedom’s Flame, a 9-11 memorial foundation to raise money and build two memorials, one in New York City and the other in Southern California. He was personally responsible for procuring and transporting eighteen tons of World Trade Center steel, plus a damaged FDNY 9-11 fire truck, from Ground Zero in NYC to Southern California, across eighteen states, through twenty-two cities, ten state capitals, and the nation’s capital, in eleven days.
In October 2003, Chuck was asked to return to government service with the Department of Defense and became the Director of Personnel for the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) in Baghdad, Iraq. Following Iraq’s Transition to Sovereignty in June 2004, he became the Regional Programs Coordinator, NE, for DOD’s Projects and Contracting Office. He was responsible for over two billion dollars in reconstruction projects in four of Iraq’s eighteen governorates. Chuck returned from Iraq in mid-November 2004 and worked as a special consultant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon in Washington, D.C.
John C. ‘Chuck’ Williams was sworn in August 2005 as the Principal Assistant Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations (PADUSD-I&E) and member of the Senior Executive Service. He serves in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Installations and Environment (I&E). He is the lead Pentagon official responsible for all US military installations world-wide.
Until October 2003, Chuck operated Williams Associates, a logistics-consulting firm in Rancho Cucamonga and San Bernardino County, California. He is a Reserve Deputy in the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. Chuck is married to the former Stefani Ann Stone, of Provo, Utah. They have two daughters, Katherine Elizabeth (KateE) and Hannah Marie. They currently reside in Washington D.C. Chuck has a married daughter, Elesa Noele, a former USAF Captain.