Operation Air Force Experience: Russell Williams
9/8/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
During the summer, Air Force Academy cadets have a variety of options and obligations required of them. For junior Russell Williams of Air Force baseball, one of his summer opportunities was participating in Operation Air Force in the Middle East.
Williams is a two-year letter winner with Air Force baseball, playing shortstop and outfield. Williams is a two-time All-Mountain West Academic honoree and a 2015 Capital One Academic All-District VII First Team honoree. The McKinney, Texas, native has played in 87 career games, making 68 starts.
Williams was able to gain first-hand experience of the working Air Force as part of the OPS AF program, a program that provides USAFA cadets the chance to visit and work at an operational Air Force base for three weeks. Williams, along with teammate, junior pitcher Jacob DeVries, spent their time at a working Air Force base in the Middle East.
As part of the OPS program, Williams was able to shadow different types of officers as they did their various responsibilities. Through the job shadowing, Williams was able to gain insight into various career fields, a valuable learning tool as he decides upon his own career field upon graduation.
Some of Williams' experiences in the Middle East included temperatures reaching as high at 126 degrees, experiencing several massive dust storms and an encounter with the world's second-deadliest scorpion in the world. He was also allowed to travel to a large Middle Eastern city for one day.
Summing up his experience, Williams learned many valuable lessons on his summer OPS trip to the Middle East.
"It was a cool experience because it really gave me a new perspective of the Air Force," Williams said. "While at the Academy, it's easy to start to think the Air Force is about going to class and marching in parades, but when you see planes take off with missiles and come back without them it's a pretty clear reminder of what were all about."
Information regarding OPS AF was obtained from the Air Force Academy Admissions website. For more information, log onto:
http://www.academyadmissions.com/about-the-academy/faq/cadet-life-and-recreation-faq/
