AFJROTC SALUTE

Major rises as students soar in key high school program

San Marcos Consolidated ISD High School Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Major Anthony “Tony” Williams said he loves his job.

“I would come to this school at least three days a week for free just to talk to young people and help them make decisions about their life, but my wife wouldn’t be very happy about it,” Williams said.

Don’t worry, he does get paid, but that statement just shows the level of passion he has for helping youth.

“All across the nation there are different Junior ROTC units, and the Air Force Junior ROTC unit is designed after the Air Force leadership model. We teach character education and leadership development. The way we teach character is by honoring our Air Force core values which are integrity, service before self and excellence in all we do,” Williams said.

The AFJROTC has a busy schedule for Memorial Day. They have two color- guard performances on that day. One is at the San Marcos Veterans Memori- al where they will do a colors presentation and a performance using the United States flag. This event will be at 10 a.m., and veterans and community members will recite the names of all of the Hays County veterans who were killed in action since WWI. The other performance will be at The Kissing Tree residential community, and they will be doing a colors presentation there. “You have to honor those Veterans because - I saw it on a bumper sticker, I can’t take this quote for my own, but - ‘Veterans gave their tomorrow, so that we could have today,’” Williams said.

According to Williams, he enlisted in the military in 1989 in the United States Air Force at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio and signed up as an Electronic Computing Systems Technician. While enlisted he earned his bachelor’s degree in 1995 and went to officer training school in 1996. He then did basic communications officer training at Keesler Air Force Base in Mississippi and graduated in 1997.

As an Officer, the list of titles Williams obtained is extensive. He was a Flight Commander, a Wing Executive Officer, a Squadron Commander, a deployed Squadron Commander supporting Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom and a Military Legislative Fellow for a Senator in Florida in 2008. The nature of his deployment in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom was classified, so all he could relay is that he was deployed to several middle eastern countries.

Williams found himself drawn to AFJROTC to help students find refuge similar to how the military uplifted him. “I came from a very poor background in Arkansas. Emerson, Arkansas has a population of 444, and I really didn’t see any way for me to get out other than joining the military. So, I took a chance and I joined the Air Force,” Williams said.

Williams had vast and varied experiences in the military. “I was exposed to so many neat and interesting things, and I learned so many things, and I lived all over the country,” Williams said. He began to wonder what he would do when he retired. “At a certain point, money just doesn’t motivate - well it motivates some people it doesn’t motivate me,” Williams said. He thought about how valuable it would be to guide others on the ways in which to navigate the world. “So I started teaching college ROTC when I was on active duty. I taught at the University of Puerto Rico for three years,” Williams said.

Teaching college ROTC gave him a bit of insight as to what would be a fulfilling career path to take. “Man, I could really help them to figure out what they want to do with their lives, and I saw Junior ROTC as the vehicle that would allow me to live my dream,” Williams said. “Honestly, other than marrying my wife and having my two boys, it’s been the best decision I’ve ever made, because it impacts so many hundreds of young people. In ROTC I don’t push joining the military, because it’s not for everybody.”

He finds that his experience allows him to help with so much more than just joining the military. “I help young people figure out what they want to do. That’s just been the best thing in the world for me,” Williams said. “I have thousands of young people who are out there that I played a small part in what they’re doing now.”

He tells a story about a particular student's success with ample pride. “One of my students from 20 years ago is going to be the first female Flying Squadron Commander of the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron,” Williams said. “When she found out she was going to be the commander of that unit she sent me an email, 'Hey, I’m going to be doing a change of command. You and Mrs. Williams have to be there.’ That’s worth more than gold.”

The AFJROTC has been doing big things this year. They were invited to march in Seguin for their Veteran’s Day Parade in December. In March, they did the first ever Memorial Bataan Death March, which was birthed from the Wreaths Across America event that happens every year where cadets go to local cemeteries and clean Veteran’s graves and flag them for wreath placement around the holidays.

This past year during Wreaths Across America, Cadets found a grave of a veteran who had died during WWII in the Philippines. Williams used this as a teaching moment, as many people are not familiar with the attack on Luzon, Philippines that occurred during WWII by the Japanese forces against American and Filipino soldiers. “They captured over 75,000 American and Filipino soldiers and made them march about 65 miles to a concentration camp, and the cadets got so excited that they wanted to do something to spread the word about this event,” Williams said. During the Memorial Bataan Death March, there were approximately 50 students that marched 15.2 miles from the high school to the local VFW post. “Along the way Veteran’s groups like the AmVet, the Amazon Veteran Warriors, the American Legion, the VFW, all of those groups set up aid stations and provided drinks and snacks for the cadets along their 15 mile march,” Williams said.