Kinsman Native Volunteers in Fargo Community

by Rick Burke, Navy Office of Community Outreach

FARGO, N.D. - A 2007 Centerburg High School graduate and Kinsman, Ohio, native recently volunteered for the Greater Plains Food Bank during Fargo-Moorhead Metro Navy Week.

Petty Officer 1st Class Chad Williams is a yeoman serving with Navy Talent Group Acquisition Group Minneapolis. He is the social media manager and public affairs officer responsible for creating relevancy in Navy awareness in all social media platforms such as Instragram, Facebook, YouTube and other media outlets. Additionally, he is the recruiter for his command and visits communities and schools to explain employment and training opportunities in the Navy.

Williams, who has four years of prior active duty service, joined the New Orleans Police Department in 2014 and served until selected for recruiting duty in Minneapolis.

When asked what it means to him to volunteer in the Fargo community, Williams said," I grew up in a small town that didn’t have a lot, and most of the residents and students at my school were on reduced lunches. Being able to volunteer here or back home, gives me the satisfaction of helping people in towns like my own."

The Great Plains Food Bank's mission is to end hunger in North Dakota and western Minnesota through community partnerships. They are the largest hunger-relief organization in North Dakota and serve as its only food bank. They work together with hundreds of food industry donors and charitable feeding programs, and thousands of volunteers and financial supporters, creating hunger-free communities.

Williams has military ties with family members who have previously served and is honored to carry on the family tradition.

"Both grandparents served in the military," he said. "One was in the Marines and the other was in the Navy. Currently my wife and brother are in the Navy and my father-in-law retired from the Navy as a master chief petty officer after serving for 32 years. It’s an honor to follow in their footsteps."

Williams' proudest accomplishment serving in the Navy is receiving his first award, Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal, for his participation in his first of 50 funeral honor ceremonies.

"My job was presenting the flag to the next of kin," he said. "Being able to be a representation of the Navy in a positive light in such an intimate setting as a small funeral and handing a flag to a Navy spouse who lost their husband or wife, was humbling to be a part of their remembrance."

Navy Weeks focus a variety of assets, equipment and personnel on a single city for a week-long series of engagements designed to bring America's Navy closer to the people it protects. It brings sailors from different units across the United States to conduct focused outreach events with members of the community in conjunction with an airshow featuring the Navy's flight demonstration squadron, the Blue Angels.

Serving in the Navy has made Williams a better overall person both professionally and personally.

"It's changed in every command that I’ve been at," said Williams. "At first it was essentially a job but then as my experience progressed, I started learning the actual good that was being done while serving in the Navy. When I volunteered to clean up after mudslides in El Salvador, I started learning about the actual impact of the Navy besides war and from there that it pushed me to want to express the positivity the Navy was doing around the world. That is why I wanted to be a recruiter."

Navy Talent Acquisition Groups is a recent change name of recruiting districts the Navy is using as part of a strategy to attract top talent from the nation’s talent pool. Navy Talent Group Acquisition Group Minneapolis recruits in six states: North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Wisconsin. They promote awareness and hire the highest quality candidates from America’s diverse talent pool to assure Navy mission success.