Michael Williams:  

Happily married more than 42 years with three wonderful adult kids and two grandchildren. At BV, member of stage/jazz band, pep band, marching band, concert band, CSF, math/science club, international friendship club. Took mostly XL classes (same students in most XL classes). After graduation, majored in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering at Purdue, IN on an Air Force ROTC scholarship. Entered a cooperative education program in Summer 1974, working every other semester/summer for five sessions with NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston--performed thermal analysis on Space Shuttle and cargo, predicting temperatures in orbit. To occupy my time in the evenings while working for NASA, I took a night school class at a community college during my second co-op session (Spring 1975). I met a wonderful young lady in class and we started spending all of our spare time together. By August, we were married and we both transferred to the University of Texas (again, on an Air Force ROTC scholarship). I graduated with a BS in Aerospace Engineering in 1978, and worked for a NASA contractor while waiting for my Air Force navigator school class to start. Carrie and I moved from the Houston area to Mather AFB in Rancho Cordova, CA and I completed navigator training in 1979. I trained later to be a KC-135 tanker navigator and the Air Force stationed us near Shreveport, LA for three years. After four years of trying to start a family, our first child (daughter) was born in 1981. Although we didn't know it at the time, she is severely retarded, autistic, and has a seizure disorder. In spite of this, we raised her as normally as possible for 19 years, until I retired from the Air Force and she moved into a group home. Our second child (son) was born in 1982, shortly before I transferred to the upper peninsula of Michigan. After four years in the "great white North", we transferred to Albuquerque, NM, where I developed operational test and evaluation (OT&E) procedures for the AF Operational Test and Evaluation Center. I was promoted to Major while at AFOTEC. In 1989, we transferred to Edwards AFB, CA,where I supervised 10 engineers and analysts performing OT&E on aircraft modifications to tanker and bomber aircraft. Our baby girl was born there in 1990. After 3 years in the Mojave Desert, we were transferred to Great Falls, MT, where I was Chief of Plans for the largest Air Refueling Wing in the Air Force. While there, I served as a church deacon in charge of benevolence--an eye opening experience! After several months, I was promoted to Lt Colonel and for a Pentagon assignment. From 1994-97, I worked for the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, reviewing speeches and documents for public release and declassifying documents--one of them was from 1940 and required coordination with the British government, but most were from the 60's and dealt with the Vietnam War. While there, I served as a church deacon in the are...Expand for more