Serving Veterans With Honor

Christopher Williams (right) received an award from Kent Davis (left) in April for his work with veterans.

Story and Photos By Hannah Lester

Lee County Assistant Veterans Service Officer Christopher Williams was honored earlier this year with the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs (ADVA) Distinguished Service Award.

Williams had no idea last April that the ADVA would present him with an award for his work in 2021 on projects assisting local veterans.

ADVA Commissioner Kent Davis traveled to Lee County to surprise Williams with the award on April 27, 2022.

“We get around the state and just visit our veterans service offices,” Davis said. “… We love to come by and just chat with the staff and see how it’s going and see how the relationships between the county and our staff is going. And it is great, and I always make a point to say thank you to the county because serving veterans through these guys is a joint effort with all the individual counties that we’re located in.

“… Every year we try to award one of our employees with something we call our ‘Distinguished Service Award,’ given to an ADVA employee to recognize significant job performance, teamwork, superior customer service and special contributions.”

There was a whole process that needed to be completed before Williams could win the award. He was nominated by his boss, which was then reviewed by an awards committee.

“Having an assistant [like] Mr. Williams, who is energetic, reliable and knowledgeable, has made the many changes necessary to adapt and accomplish the ADVA’s mission seamless[ly],” said Lee County Veterans Service Officer Sean Gathers. “Christopher Williams exhibits leadership qualities easily capable of executing the duties and responsibilities of a veterans service officer.”

Out of the 1,200 employees, Williams was chosen this year.

“Everybody knows the last couple years have been difficult,” Davis said. “In the world of veterans’ affairs, it’s been really difficult dealing with the pandemic, and all of our offices, including this office, stayed open and provided just superb customer service to our veterans around the state.

“Despite the challenges of the pandemic, [Williams] did his job with energy; he was reliable, knowledgeable. He’s shown himself to be completely trustworthy and reliable in performing his duties. He’s dedicated to our core missions and the core values of the Alabama Department of Veterans Affairs.”

Williams focused his work in 2021 on two new projects —

“Project Digital” and “Project Digital 2.0”. These projects turned all hardcopies of documents into digital files.

“He also assisted the nearly 12,000 veterans in Lee County while also traveling weekly to the Tallapoosa Coosa County area and Chambers County to assist veterans,” said the ADVA.

Williams also took time to do research and studied case laws related to veterans’ affairs, Davis said.

“He’s been very active in the community,” Davis said. “He coordinated and executed several roundtable discussions with an audience with state Medicaid, Medicare, local nursing homes from all over the state of Alabama, sharing information and lessons learned to better assist veterans and their surviving spouses as they dealt with those agencies.”

Williams also participated in and attended events around the area and state to better serve veterans.

“So in short, Mr. Williams has dedicated countless hours over the last year volunteering in the community with two nonprofit organizations for the purpose of providing scholarships to college-bound students from the local area of Lee, Russell and Macon Counties,” Davis said. “All of that, in addition to his regular job that he performs 40 hours a week.”

There are approximately 400,000 veterans in Alabama, he said.

“We try to go the extra mile to make sure they’re taken care of, especially when they come home from their service in the military,” Davis said. “ … All of our veterans service officers and assistant veterans service officers do a great job taking care of the needs of veterans around the state. Everything from helping them apply for a claim with the Federal VA, to helping family members applying for GI Bill benefits, VA loans — anything that involves services and benefits to veterans.” Williams brought the attention back to his own leadership and bosses, however, when presented with the award. “I want to thank my chain of command first because I am right here today because of my chain of command,” he said. “And everybody that I’m looking at in here, you have some form, some part in this.”