Death of Air Force officer son was huge ‘shock,' mom says
OU graduate killed while stationed in Guam.
OU graduate killed while stationed in Guam

By Bryan Dean
Published: July 25, 2008

Maj. Brent D. Williams was a devoted single father who died doing a job he loved, his mother said Thursday.

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Search for other bodies continues

The Air Force is investigating the crash that killed Brent Williams and the five other crew members of the B-52 nicknamed Raider 21. The bomber was scheduled to perform a flyover as part of a Guam Liberation Day celebration, which marks the day U.S. forces reclaimed Guam from Japan during World War II.

Williams' body was one of two recovered on Monday. The search continued Wednesday for the other four.

Services pending

Funeral Services for Brent Williams have not yet been set, but will be held in Blanchard.

Sharon Williams said family members will attend a memorial service this afternoon at Barksdale Air Force Base for all six men killed in the crash.

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Williams, 37, a graduate of Norman High School and the University of Oklahoma, was one of six Air Force personnel killed Monday when a B-52 Stratofortress bomber crashed during a training mission off the Pacific island of Guam.

Sharon Williams said a group of Air Force officials delivered the news at her Midwest City home.

"It was an absolute shock,” she said. "You can't imagine what it was like to look out and see the three Air Force people in the dark. I knew something happened, and I just couldn't believe it.”

Fan of his kids, football

Williams said her son was a fanatic OU football supporter who would do anything for his 13-year-old daughter, Brooke, and his 11-year-old son, Border.

"Everything was for those kids,” Sharon Williams said. "He loved them so much. Whatever they wanted, he tried to get it for them.”

Sharon Williams said her son joined the ROTC while he was a student at OU, and quickly decided he wanted to become a career Air Force officer.

Brent Williams flew as a navigator in a B-52 for most of his career. He was stationed at Barksdale Air Force Base at Shreveport, La., and was deployed to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam when he died.

The Air Force is investigating the crash that killed Williams and the five other crew members of the B-52 nicknamed Raider 21. The bomber was scheduled to perform a flyover as part of a Guam Liberation Day celebration, which marks the day U.S. forces reclaimed Guam from Japan during World War II.

Williams' body was one of two recovered on Monday. The search continued Wednesday for the other four.

At the Pentagon on 9/11

Sharon Williams said her son believed his service in the Air Force would make life better for his children, a belief that was reinforced on 9/11.

Brent Williams was in a meeting at the Pentagon when a jet crashed into the building that day, Sharon Williams said.

"They heard an explosion, and they thought it was a bomb,” she said. "They got out, and there were people in hysterics. He said there was a blind homeless man there, and he was comforting a lady who was going into hysterics on the lawn.”

Later, Brent Williams was part of a group that took a piece of the Pentagon to New York City, where they met with firefighters and visited the Statue of Liberty.

"Whatever he needed to do, he would have done it for his country,” Sharon Williams said.