THE WILLIAMS FAMILY LEGACY
To the Williams family, serving their country was just as much a family business as pipelines.
Three second-generation members of the founding family served in World War II.
Charlie Williams was in the United States Army Corps of Engineers; he supervised the construction
of airfields, pipelines, and roads in the China-Burma-India theater. Charlie served in various
executive and board positions from 1949 until he retired in 1974.
Charlie’s brother John Williams was with the Navy Civil Engineering Corps; he served in the Pacific
theater, including Iwo Jima. John served as Williams CEO from 1949 to 1979 and chairman,
1971-1979.
Charlie and John’s cousin David Williams, Jr., was a fighter pilot with the 8th Air Force of the Army
Air Corps. He flew missions over Nazi-controlled Europe. David served in various executive and
board roles from 1949 until his death in 2000.
Clockwise from top, David Williams, John
Williams and Charles Williams all served in the
U.S. Military in World War II.
“Veterans have been groomed to take an
active role in achieving their objective. This
is Job 1 in the United States military. We
have the most effective and elite fighting
force in the world because individuals
are expected to reach higher and achieve
greater levels of responsibility.”
A good example is operations technician
Kirk Edwards, who joined Williams after
serving 20 years in the U.S. Air Force,
retiring as a technical sergeant. Kirk’s Air
Force background instilled in him the
“safety first” mindset essential to working
at Williams.
“My mechanical background is what I
believed helped me secure my job with
Williams,” Edwards says. “Additionally,
attention to detail and safety was always
imperative when working with military
aircraft. During my interview process, I was
asked about how I viewed job safety. The
fact that it had been drilled into my daily
routine for 20 years meant that I knew it
always had to come first.”
Edwards believes his military training has
a direct impact on Williams’ reliability in
serving customers. “Our customers rely
on us to deliver the energy that makes
their lives move. The attention to detail
is imperative to ensure that we do not
interrupt the flow of natural gas, while
ensuring the safety of each other and
our neighbors.”
Well beyond their active military service,
Williams’ veterans continue to help ensure
our country’s security through safe, reliable
energy supplies — just as their predecessors
did in building the War Emergency
Pipelines all those decades ago. ■
Portions of this article reprinted by permission
of Search & Employ® magazine, published
by RecruitMilitary.
Built by Williams Brothers during World War II,
the Big Inch and Little Big Inch pipelines safely
brought vital crude oil, fuel oil and gasoline
from Texas to massive war plants and machines
in the northeast United States.
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