Reminiscences of Vice Adm. Joe Williams Jr., USN (Ret.)

This volume describes a remarkable career that began when Williams entered boot camp in 1940 and then went through machinist's mate school at the Ford Motor Company. He served 1941-44 in the seaplane tender USS Matagorda (AVP-22), advancing from fireman to chief machinist's mate. In 1944 he was commissioned an ensign and went through a number of combat landings in the Pacific on board the rocket-equipped infantry landing craft USS LCI(R)-225. In 1945 he became her skipper. Tours of duty later in the 1940s: the Columbia River Group of the Pacific Reserve Fleet, the destroyer USS Robert L. Wilson (DD-847), and Submarine School. In the 1950s he fit in studies at the University of California at Berkeley among tours on board the submarines USS Ronquil (SS-396), USS Icefish (SS-367), and the hunter-killer submarines USS Bashaw (SSK-241) and USS Bluegill (SSK-242). He commanded the latter during intelligence operations in the North Pacific. He also spent a year as a student at the Naval War College and was picked by Admiral Hyman Rickover for the Navy's nuclear power course, even though he didn't yet have a college degree. In the early 1960s he put two ballistic missile submarines into commission as skipper, the USS Robert E. Lee (SSBN-601) and USS George Bancroft (SSBN-643). He served from 1966 to 1968 as deputy director of the Special Projects Office and later led a study group that developed plans for the Los Angeles-class attack submarines. After serving as chief of staff to ComSubLant, Vice Admiral E. P. Wilkinson, Williams was selected for flag rank. In 1973-74 he commanded the Norfolk Naval Shipyard, and from 1974 to 1977 served as Commander Submarine Force Atlantic Fleet. In retirement he worked for the Electric Boat Division of General Dynamics.

Paul Stillwell is an independent historian and retired naval officer. He worked for thirty years at the U.S. Naval Institute as an oral historian and editor of Naval History magazine. He is the author or editor of fourteen books, including four on battleships and an award-winning volume on the Navy’s first African American officers, The Golden Thirteen. His 2021 book Battleship Commander: The Life of Vice Admiral Willis A. Lee Jr. also received acclaim. He lives in Arnold, Maryland.