Page 44 - Senior Link Magazine Fall 2021- Online Magazine

Gene Williams On the Road (or in the Air)
ene was born in 1927 in
Crosby County. Every
Gday, he milked 12 head
of cows, until he turned 15 years
old. That’s when his dad asked
him to move out because, as
Gene said, “He couldn’t make
me a living anymore.” Along
with his sister, the two moved to
Lubbock.
Gene delivered auto parts to
garages while attending Lubbock
High and picked up any odd job,
just to get a little money. While
44 Lubbock Senior Link
Again.. and Again... and Again
by Cheryl Goforth
in high school, he friends I ever had. He [was]
became friends killed in Iwo Jima when we were
with the Furr’s there knocking the beach head
grocery store down.”
pilot who taught
him how to fly. After the war, Gene got a job in
Eventually, Gene the oil fields and was smitten
had his own plane. by a girl who worked in the
After graduation, restaurant at the job site. He told
he attended Texas his mother that day, “I’m going
Tech for one year, to marry that girl.” Two weeks
then joined the later, they were married.
Navy. The hands-on training he
In November of received in the Navy set the
1944, Gene was course for the rest of his life.
sent to boot camp He went on to Texas Tech, then
in San Diego, to Rice, and received degrees
then on to Camp in Mechanical and Electrical
Shoemaker for Engineering. He is also a
officer training Fluids Engineer and an expert
school and finally locksmith.
to Adak, Alaska. Gene worked all over the world
He said, “They as an independent contractor,
kicked us out of building 118 factories of every
the plane, and kind imaginable. To every safe
then kicked out country, he took his wife and
bulldozers and daughter, but to every unsafe
all kinds of metal country, he went alone.
for us to roll out a
runway.” Though he was wined and
dined by presidents and leaders
As part of the 124 Naval of many nations, and played
Construction Battalion, known golf in 40 countries, not all his
as the Seabees, he served as experiences were pleasant. One
Camp Commander for the next such trip was to Aleppo, Syria.
three years, building docks,
huts, various other buildings, Gene was under contract to build
and a runway in Adak, as well a bank and a cotton gin there.
as a dock in Dutch Harbor. Gene Because he arrived without
credits an old Warrant Officer blueprints, they questioned his
who told him how to run a base. story. Suspecting him to be a spy,
“I was 17 and didn’t know what they locked him up and gave him
to do. Thank God for him. He the “waterboard treatment”. He
wound up to be one of the best finally convinced them and was