New commandant of cadets reports for duty

  • Published
  • By Don Branum
  • Academy Public Affairs
U.S. AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. --  A 1989 Air Force Academy graduate and F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot with more than 2,800 flying hours assumed command of the Air Force Academy's Cadet Wing July 1.

Brig. Gen. Stephen Williams, the Academy's new commandant, said he joined the Air Force to fly, but has stayed because of the Airmen he's worked with and led.

"Without a doubt, the thing I'm most excited about is the opportunity to lead on a grand scale," he said. "I'm getting to lead the permanent party staff, who is some of the best we have in the Air Force. The sheer number of future leaders we can impact is really awe-inspiring to me."

Williams said he's honored and grateful to lead the Cadet Wing.

"To go through this journey with the Class of 2018 that they're embarking on, and all the other classes, '15, '16 and '17, as they go through their journey of discovery, of how to be better leaders, I think that's going to make me a better leader," he said. "It's going to help me grow. It's going to make me not just a better leader but a better person."

Williams comes to the Academy from Misawa Air Base, Japan, where he commanded the 35th Fighter Wing, an organization with more than 3,000 personnel and assets totaling more than $2 billion. His previous assignments include a year as vice commander of the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan AB, South Korea, from 2011 to 2012, and commander of the 13th Fighter Squadron at Misawa AB from 2006 to 2008.

The squadron deployed to Balad AB, Iraq, during that period, becoming the 13th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron.
One mission during the deployment would later lead to Williams and three other pilots -- Col. Charles Moore, Capt. Lawrence Sullivan and Capt. Kristopher Struve -- receiving the 2007 Clarence H. Mackay Trophy for most meritorious flight of the year.

"I was on the flightline and got pulled aside by my operations group commander," Williams said. "He said, 'We've got a mission I need to talk to you about, but you can't tell anybody, and we're going to fly it in 24 hours. I needed to know if it's possible.' We basically had to sit down and plan a sortie from Balad, Iraq, all the way around Iran and through Pakistan ... to the far eastern side of Afghanistan. All in all, this was going to be a 12-hour sortie in an F-16."

Williams and his officers determined they could pull off the mission, so sensitive in nature the tanker crews refueling Williams and his fellow pilots wouldn't be listed on the day's air tasking order.

"The tankers that refueled us didn't know why -- they just knew they had a mission to give us gas and drag us to certain places," he said. "To me, it was a great teamwork story for the Air Force: How they put together the command and control, the refueling (and) our weapons load team who had to build the weapons and get them on the aircraft in a short amount of time. It was the equivalent of flying from New York to Los Angeles and back and hitting a two-minute time-on-target window. We took the F-16, a predominantly tactical fighter, and flew it in a strategic way -- a global reach, global power kind of way."

Williams credits the Airmen who planned and prepared the mission for its success.

"Though we won the trophy, we're the figureheads," he said. "There are so many people who were involved in that mission who didn't get a lot of love, and they deserve it."
Williams, a native of Midland, Mich., said the Academy must continue to build cadets' character and integrity.

"If you have integrity and character, all of the rest of the stuff comes into place," he said. "If you don't have integrity and character, I don't think there's a lot we can do to help you be a good officer in this Air Force. Character development is a very, very big thing here ... it's why we spend so much time finding ways to develop and expand on character."

The new commandant characterized leadership and character as something learned through experience.

"You don't read a book and build character," he said. "You do, and you fail sometimes, and that's how you build character. It's OK to fail because if it's done appropriately, you can turn that into a character-building moment. It can help you grow, learn and advance your own character."

Williams praised the outgoing commandant, Maj. Gen. Gregory Lengyel, for giving the Class of 2014 the leeway to do just that, and he said he plans to leave Lengyel's improvements to Cadet Wing training in place.

"When I went through (the Academy), they told me how to be a leader," he said. "You would go try it, and they would say, 'No, you're doing it wrong.' What we're doing now is actually letting them figure out how they want to lead and holding them accountable.

"When I watch them stand up and do things, they amaze me, and it's because (Lengyel) has put this responsibility on their shoulders and held them accountable," Williams said. "That's going to do nothing but make them better officers, and I think it's awesome."

Williams also said he would like to see the Cadet Wing focus on inspiring cadets so they're as excited about becoming second lieutenants as they were the day they walked onto the campus.

"Sometimes we lose something in-between there - that excitement, wanting to serve, wanting to be a part of the Air Force," he said. "The excitement can get beaten down so much in four years. But one of the things I'd like to see is for us continue to find ways to motivate them to be just as excited about entering the Air Force as they were about entering the Air Force Academy four years prior."

Williams' major awards and decorations include a Defense Superior Service Medal, a Legion of Merit, a Bronze Star, five Meritorious Service Medals, three Air Medals, two Aerial Achievement Medals, a Joint Service Commendation Medal and two Air Force Commendation Medals. He holds a Master of Science in aerospace technology from Embry-Riddle University in Daytona Beach, Fla., and a bachelor's degree in engineering mechanics from the Air Force Academy.

His military education includes Air War College by correspondence and Army Command and General Staff College in Fort Leavenworth, Kan.