Our Veterans, Our Stories Podcast

Kim Williams United States Army Veteran

0:00:00
(Speaker 2)
Welcome to the Our Veterans, Our Stories podcast with the Hancock County Veterans Service Office. This is where we give our local veterans an opportunity to share their stories with our community and beyond. There is a real brotherhood among all vets, and it will be great to help others to know their stories about serving our country. And it gives us an opportunity to introduce the community to our team at the Hancock County Veterans Service Office so people can learn a little bit more about what we do and how we can help. Today we’re here with Kim Williams, a wonderful veteran from our community. Kim was the Veteran of the Year last year. Kim, do you want to open up by just telling us a little bit about yourself?

0:00:40
(Speaker 1)
My name is Kim Williams. I grew up in Cary, Ohio, graduated from Cary. I have a son who’s 21, going to be 22 next month.

0:00:53
(Speaker 2)
What are some things that you maybe are involved in?

0:00:58
(Speaker 1)
I am involved, I’m a veteran service commissioner. I am an officer at AMBEDS post 21 and do all of the minutes and everything for that. I’m also a Patriot guard rider, although I don’t own a bike. They do allow veterans and civilians, whoever’s patriotic and wants to support them, I drive my vehicle. I actually did a mission with them last weekend.

0:01:38
(Speaker 9)
That was really cool.

0:01:39
(Speaker 2)
That sounds cool. So to earn all those veterans things, let’s get into your military a little bit. What made you want to serve your country?

0:01:47
(Speaker 1)
My grandpa.

0:01:48
(Speaker 2)
Your grandpa. Tell me about that.

0:01:51
(Speaker 1)
So I was like seven years old, and I was just young. And I was riding with him down 23, and he, well, a convoy was coming near, towards us and I thought that was just the coolest thing in the world and I was like, Grandpa, I want to do that when I get older and he was like, you can and then he told me that he was in the army and he was a motor sergeant in Korea and that was just, that kind of like sealed my fate but our family is very much a military family. My grandpa was in the army. My dad served in the Navy. He retired out of the Navy after 20 years. My brother, he was in the Navy during Gulf War. Oh, my grandpa was in the Korean War. My dad was in Vietnam War. My brother Richard, he served in the And then I joined the Army. And then my brother also had joined the Army, but he was hurt in a training exercise. So they medically retired him. Gotcha. So, motor sergeant, what was your MOS?

0:03:04
(Speaker 2)
What’d you choose and why? I was a truck driver. I was an 88 Mike.

0:03:09
(Speaker 1)
I love driving. And when I talked to my recruiter, I was in Cary, the old school building that they tore down, it was one building and when I was in sixth grade I could look down the hall and into the high school and I could see the recruiters going to the office. I’m like, oh yeah, I’m going to talk to them. So when I was in seventh grade, they would be setting up to talk to the juniors and seniors. And I’d walk up after lunch and be like, I’m going to talk to you guys whenever I get older. They’re like, okay. I don’t think they thought I was serious, but I was 100% serious.

0:03:54
(Speaker 2)
That’s fantastic. So you knew for a long time that you were going to go. So how did it go once you got into it? What did you do basic?

0:04:03
(Speaker 1)
Basic training? I did basic and AIT at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri. It was definitely different. I liked it because when I left, a lot of people didn’t really think I’d make it past basic, but I was like, I was bound and determined to make it past basic. And so we graduated basic training and then we got to march to our AIT barracks. So that was pretty fun.

0:04:44
(Speaker 2)
Proud moment, knowing that you proved a bunch of people wrong. Yes.

0:04:47
(Speaker 8)
That’s great.

0:04:48
(Speaker 2)
Yup.

0:04:49
(Speaker 6)
Yeah.

0:04:50
(Speaker 2)
So once basic and AIT is over, did you go straight active duty?

0:04:56
(Speaker 1)
I was active duty, but so when I was at the MET station, they asked if anybody wanted airborne in their orders and it’s like, yeah, why not? Like, I wanna do that. But I was injured and I wasn’t able to complete the school so they ended up sending me to Korea and I thought that was pretty cool. That’s where your dad was right? My grandpa. Your grandpa. Yes. I asked him, he told me a story about when he was over there he had a Korean national that was helping them in the motor pool and he said that whenever they got pushed, when North Korea pushed down to where he was at, they were getting closer, the Korean National asked him, he’s like, hey, can I go up and take my family into the mountains? And my grandpa was like, of course. So he left. And then when I got orders, I asked my grandpa, I was like, well, what’s his name? I’m going to find this guy. It was impossible. I did ask our katusas and they were just like yeah we have we have no clue so I wasn’t able to do that but it was neat to be able to go to a duty station that my grandpa had gone to. That’s neat. Where else did you serve? Was it Korea the whole time? I was in Korea for a year and then I got stationed at Fort Eustis, Virginia and I was in 551st Cargo Transfer Company with 6th Battalion, 7th Group. That was a lot of fun. We had good times, lived in the barracks and just played cards a lot, went to the field and just had a good time. I knew a couple people in my company because they were actually in my company in Korea. So I kind of got to follow them so when I saw them I was just like yes like I know people it’s like the military is such a small community. It is

0:06:58
(Speaker 2)
and you don’t really realize how small of a community it is until you’re there for a number of years. So Fort Eustis I’m familiar with I’m also an 88 Mike so 88 Mike I know is a dangerous job and it’s a very you know a needed position. You want to tell me a little bit about it and kind of where it led you in your career and some of the

0:07:21
(Speaker 1)
things you’ve done with it? So I chose 8A at night because my grandpa was a motor sergeant and I loved driving trucks so when I was when I was stationed Fort Eustis, Virginia, we would do line haul missions. So it’s basically a semi-truck that you would see out on the road, like a civilian semi-truck. And we would do missions and just like go to AP Hill. And it was just, we were doing training and so we thought that it was just going to be, okay, we’re going to drive down the roads whenever we go anywhere, if we’re called to war or whatever. Well, after September 11th happened, I was pregnant at the time with my son, and so that was some intense feelings. I didn’t know why I joined the military at that point, because how was I going to leave my son? But 9-11 happened, so then our company commander was like, Case, you’re going. You get four months with your son, and then you’re going to war with us. And I was just like, oh, my gosh. So I actually got eight and a half months with them, and then we deployed for Operation Iraqi Freedom. And there were no roads like we have in the United States. So when we first crossed the berm, it was, we were just like driving. We had roads, MSR Tampa, we sat there and drove down that. And then we had coordinates and we were just driving through the middle of the desert and we were getting stuck. We didn’t have a farmer on our vehicle, thank goodness that it happened to where they didn’t have all the stuff, like the IEDs and everything. That part hadn’t happened. When we were just driving it, it was kind of crazy. It wasn’t like line haul, like you would think. It was just drive and get to that point so we can like deliver the waters because that’s what we were carrying is water and MREs for the soldiers that were on the front lines. Through the moon dust? Yeah. Oh my gosh. And then the sandstorms when those were happening it was like oh my gosh we’re on Mars because it was just completely red so it was it was different. It was a completely different atmosphere and everything

0:10:05
(Speaker 2)
So you ran a lot of missions there in Iraq? Yes You there in oh three or four. What what was your years there? I was there in oh three

0:10:15
(Speaker 1)
January to I believe it was July or August and then we came back for about a year and then we went back for 06, 07. And then that was my last deployment with 89.

0:10:36
(Speaker 2)
That’s a lot of exposure to Iraq.

0:10:39
(Speaker 10)
Yes.

0:10:40
(Speaker 2)
All of those years. My gosh. Yeah, any stories stand out? Any funny stories or any stories you want to share about maybe deployment or mobilization or anything at all?

0:10:51
(Speaker 1)
So it was at our first deployment we were at our camp called Cedar where we had basically pulled off the side of the road and said okay we’re setting up tents and we’re just going to stay here. So we didn’t have water, we didn’t have like latrines or anything like that. So we were like just bathing in a little plastic thing like basin. We had some of our NCOs, they had their spouses send out camping, camping showers. So we use that to shower. But for that deployment, the thing that really like sticks out, and God love him, he’s just, he was the best First Sergeant that we could have possibly had during that time. He kept our morale up, but we were all in the tents and we’re just talking, we had come off mission, and all of a sudden, our first sergeant, like army crawled into the tent. And it was just, it was so like comical and like just out of nowhere, but it was, it was awesome.

0:12:21
(Speaker 2)
It’s good to have that leadership that keeps up that morale.

0:12:23
(Speaker 9)
Yes.

0:12:24
(Speaker 2)
Especially like that. So in between MOVES you were at Eustis. What did you do at Fort Eustis? What was your daily life like on Fort Eustis?

0:12:36
(Speaker 1)
Truck maintenance. That was one thing that was so important. We just made sure our trucks were good to go, did preventative checks and maintenance on them. I don’t know it was like going and hanging out with like family every day because that’s That’s what the military life is. You go and yeah, sometimes you’re just like not doing anything at all But at the same time you’re like with your best friends Yeah, and did you ever have to mop the motor pool in the rain or anything?

0:13:09
(Speaker 2)
No, but in Korea, I, oh man, and I fell for it. I had, I was looking for some ID-10-T

0:13:12
(Speaker 1)
forms, had no idea, brand-new private military, I had no clue. I felt like such an idiot because they were like, Case, you need what form? Like an ID 10 T form they’re like what do you think that is I was like I have no idea they’re like why don’t you write it down so I wrote it down and I just I it hit me like a ton of bricks I was like oh my god you guys are messing with me yeah it was like comical cuz you just you sit there and like pick on each

0:13:58
(Speaker 2)
other yeah I remember myself getting an exhaust sample off a generator and taking it in. Yeah, yeah. So I had a bag of exhaust, took it in to get it tested. I fell for that one.

0:14:09
(Speaker 1)
Yeah. Fox the grid square. Yeah, right. Yeah. Oh my gosh. In 551 cargo transfer company, they had like the big Connex, they pick up Connexes. Well those tires are huge.

0:14:26
(Speaker 2)
The RET, yes, yep.

0:14:27
(Speaker 1)
So the tires are huge, like taller than me, taller than guys. And they have like brand new tires. So the little nubs, I heard of people making them like, hey, we have to get these up to regulation. You got to cut all those little nubs off. And they were just sitting there fighting. But it’s just, it’s all in fun. And I think throughout the whole military, it’s like, that’s just the kind of atmosphere it is. You like, pick on people, but in the most loving way.

0:15:01
(Speaker 2)
Yeah. Would you choose 88 Mike again if you had to do it all over?

0:15:05
(Speaker 1)
I would.

0:15:05
(Speaker 4)
You would?

0:15:06
(Speaker 2)
I would.

0:15:07
(Speaker 1)
That’s a good sign right there. Cause I love driving. I got to see parts of Iraq that I wouldn’t have been able to see if I wasn’t an 88 Mike. And just the people, I’d do everything exactly the same, because then that would mean that I’d have all the same people. I want the same people with me, because they were a rowdy crowd, but they were so much fun, and they’re my family. They always will be.

0:15:35
(Speaker 5)
That’s great.

0:15:36
(Speaker 2)
So what did you end up doing? You got out of the service.

0:15:39
(Speaker 8)
I did.

0:15:40
(Speaker 2)
And what’d you do after the service?

0:15:42
(Speaker 1)
I didn’t really know what I wanted to do after I got out. I went to school to be a medical assistant and I was a medical assistant at a plastic surgeon’s office for, it was about a year, and that was fun, but I wasn’t making enough money. So then I had a friend, Michelle, and she was like, hey, come do this job with me. Like your medical experience and your military experience could really, you could use all that here. And so I worked at a place called Bellum and we were a government contractor and it was the coolest thing. I got to work with the pararescue jumpers in the Air Force and they are a bunch of like badass guys. They are. They were awesome. I had found a device that to sit there and put into their for use for their helicopters and so it’s like just a regular conversation in each other’s language but you can sit there and just like talk like you and I are talking and completely understand. Wow. And it was but we ended up losing our funding. So after that, I didn’t have a job and it was a really hard time for me. So I actually ended up moving back home to Ohio. My sister and her husband and her son came and got me and I was kind of kicking and screaming the whole way that I didn’t really want to come back to Ohio but it it actually turned out to be probably the best thing for me because I got more involved with AMVETS, I got more involved with the Veterans Service Office and other organizations and I’ve met so many great people and great vets that I think it’s just it’s so rewarding to like work with.

0:18:01
(Speaker 7)
Yeah.

0:18:02
(Speaker 2)
Guitar for Vets graduate?

0:18:04
(Speaker 1)
I didn’t do that.

0:18:06
(Speaker 2)
Not yet. I want to.

0:18:09
(Speaker 1)
I definitely want to.

0:18:10
(Speaker 6)
We’ll talk about that.

0:18:11
(Speaker 2)
OK. Veteran of the Year last year. You want to talk a little bit about that? How was that experience for you? Not everyone just gets that, you know what I mean?

0:18:21
(Speaker 1)
I, so, like, it’s such a great honor. But I feel like there’s other vets out there that are more deserving, because it’s just, I just do what I do, because, like, I love veterans, and I love helping them to get better, and, but it was, it was a great honor, but I don’t know. I don’t like being the person like out front.

0:18:51
(Speaker 2)
You’re very humble. Very humble. You’re very deserving of that. Thank you. Yeah. What advice would you give to someone that may be looking to join the military or things like that? What advice would you give them?

0:19:05
(Speaker 1)
My main advice is if you’re going to choose, like, achieve all your goals that you want to, and then also achieve your goals after you get out. I think it’s important to try to look at the big picture when going into the military. Give it your absolute all, like, don’t be afraid to volunteer for stuff. Everybody says, oh, don’t volunteer, get all the schools that you possibly can, make your career what you want it to be, because in the military it’s limitless. It really is. You can do anything that you put your mind to, and I think that’s like one of the big things that the military teaches you, is that, man, I couldn’t do a push-up whenever I first went into basic training, and honestly, I was maxing out my push-ups by the time I left. So the military is going to teach you exactly like what kind of person you are. And it’s just, you have to use every bit of it to sit there and do the things that you want to.

0:20:18
(Speaker 2)
So, Nicole, our executive director always talks highly of the commissioners, with you being one of them. We’re all definitely proud of you for one, and two, very thankful that we have good commissioners and support from the commissioners.

0:20:36
(Speaker 1)
But the Veterans Service was called out because they have such a great Facebook presence and they list everything that is coming up and other counties were like, we want to do that too. So it makes me proud to be part of the Veterans Commission that overlooks the VSO here in Hancock County because you guys do amazing work. You guys have actually helped me with my claim. And I couldn’t ask for anything better. And to actually work with you guys, you guys are phenomenal.

0:21:23
(Speaker 2)
So what are some ways that our office has assisted you and helped you out with things?

0:21:28
(Speaker 1)
So one of the programs that the BSO helped get me in touch with was the music. I can’t think of the name.

0:21:36
(Speaker 2)
G.I. Tunes? Yes, G.I. Tunes. Yes, that’s a very good one.

0:21:39
(Speaker 1)
That helped me so much, like mentally, because music can pull you out of anything. It could like uplift your spirits, and especially when you need it. I sat there and I completed that, and I still use the music list that she had created for me, because you can’t help but to be happy whenever you’re listening to it. Some other programs, they have meetings on Mondays at 5. That’s the Veterans Discovering New Life group. That’s fantastic. That also helps me. I haven’t been to it in a couple of weeks because of work. You know we do have it now Thursday at 11am also. I know. I can’t get off work. I’m on first shift, so unfortunately I can’t make that one. But the one on Monday is at 5. Nicole gives us some things to think about during the week. And it does, it makes you think. And whenever we come back and listen to all the other vets with how they think of it and what they get out of the question, it really brings that camaraderie and it’s like, okay, I’m not the only one thinking this way and it really does help because I think veterans, we find ourselves being like, okay, well, I don’t want to burden anybody with some of the things I’m thinking about or with any of my problems, but to sit there and sit with other veterans and like talk about some of the stuff that you know it’s hard to sit there and talk to our families or whatever about because they don’t understand but who understands better than another vet so that that really

0:23:27
(Speaker 2)
does help. Absolutely I’m also in that group and one of the things I love about it is like the age range we’ve got from early 30s to late 70s. So you find out that someone that maybe was a Vietnam vet or any other vet thinks the same as you. It’s like it doesn’t matter where you’re at in time, the things are the same and you can relate to those people.

0:23:51
(Speaker 5)
Absolutely.

0:23:52
(Speaker 2)
It’s wonderful.

0:23:53
(Speaker 1)
Another way that the VSO helped me is when I lived in Virginia, I tried to do my claim and I can’t even remember what organization it was, but I remember that they gave me a packet of paper and said, here, fill this out. They didn’t help me at all. And then I brought it back and there was somebody else in the office and I handed it to them. They’re like, oh, well, that’s, that’s the wrong packet. I’m like, you guys gave this to me. And they’re like, no, that’s the wrong packet. So they gave me another one. I went back a third time after filling it out and there was somebody else, you have the wrong packet. And I was just like, I was fed up and I stopped. I was like, I’m not dealing with this anymore. They don’t care. So when I moved back to Ohio, Kyle was like, hey, come in, come in and talk to us. And like I just don’t trust it. And then I sat down and talked with him and he sat there and helped me from beginning to end. And he made it easy. And he sat there and listened to me, helped me through the whole process. And I was actually able to get my claim done. And I did get a percentage, so, and it helps. And I feel like anytime anybody asks me, well, like, well, who do I go to help? Go to your veteran service office. If you don’t know who it is, Google it. I will sit there and help Google it for people that are like out of state. Like, you know, you have to go to your veteran service office because they’re there to help you. And it’s that way across the United States. So, but we’re really lucky. Our Finley VSO is amazing.

0:25:45
(Speaker 2)
The best, right?

0:25:46
(Speaker 1)
They are, they really are. They’re like, they’re setting the example for all other VSOs.

0:25:52
(Speaker 2)
So you did end up with some injuries in the service.

0:25:54
(Speaker 3)
Yes.

0:25:55
(Speaker 1)
So I didn’t, because I was a truck driver, like you know, it was, it’s just like the wear and tear is what my back is it was like when we were driving across the desert like they had air ride seats okay well that’s fantastic but as soon you go on a bump and you’re up here and then all of a sudden you slam down with all of your gear on and that a

0:26:21
(Speaker 2)
Yeah, the gear was heavy it was

0:26:24
(Speaker 1)
Like driving in the truck you have the gear on and

0:26:27
(Speaker 3)
it’s like you’re just

0:26:29
(Speaker 1)
it weighs you down and you’re like climbing up into the truck and you’re like At the fuel point and then you’re like trying to get everything done and I’m five foot three on a good day. And it just, I don’t know, all of it just, it becomes heavy. So I feel like it just, like it compacted my spine. And I have, you know, arthritis in my spine and I have degenerative disc disease. My sciatic nerve is completely messed up because yeah like the big guys they could just like throw that stuff on

0:27:17
(Speaker 2)
and they’re like yeah let’s go but I was a bigger guy and I’ll tell you what you got your your vest your combat load all that stuff your daps your side plates and you’re looking at like 42 pounds or so and you’re sitting in your seat like this with the wheel and by the way wear your seatbelt yeah yeah and then and You know, right? Yeah. And then all the bouncing you’re doing is just throwing you all over that truck. It’s pretty intense. I can just imagine someone with a smaller stature like that just taking on that same

0:27:54
(Speaker 1)
load as a bigger person. And there’s females that were smaller than me. We had males that were small too. But of course we want to be like, yeah, females can sit there and do like anything a guy can do. Yeah. Like some females, they absolutely can. But it does wear and tear on your body. Definitely to a certain degree. That’s my back. What’s going on with that? I was close to an IED. It was like it hit the truck right in front of me and at the cloverleaf by Biop. Yeah. And we were we were on our way home and we had gotten intel, they were like, you know, at the cloverleaf, no matter what, you just keep on moving. And the truck in front of me, like, it exploded on the driver’s side and I was the truck directly behind him. And like when the shock blast went off, it like pushed me back in my seat. And then just before, just before I was getting, being med boarded for my back, but then I had a seizure. And like, I don’t remember the seizure. I remember my son being like, mom, you kept on telling me to go to bed in the bathroom. And I’m like, no, I didn’t. He was like, you did. But they said that I had right temporal scarring. And the doctor or the neurologist said, well, I’ve never actually seen it. They always say, well, it’s going to be here. And they said that, well, we’ve seen it on your scan. So it, they didn’t connect it to the military. So I don’t know. But after that, because I was like, trying, I was like, please let me stay in. I have 10 years. And I hope, right? Yeah, I was I was like, right there. And they’re like, now you definitely You definitely can’t stay in. You have seizures now. Like, you can’t do it.

0:30:05
(Speaker 2)
Well, Kim, thank you for doing the interview with us today. It was an honor to be the one that interviewed you. Again, thank you for your service and all you do.

0:30:14
(Speaker 4)
Thank you for yours.

0:30:15
(Speaker 3)
For more stories like this,

0:30:16
(Speaker 2)
please stay tuned to our podcast, Our Veterans, Our Stories. See you at the next one. See you at the next one. you