Capt. John Henry David Williams, Usn, Ret.

Capt. John Henry Donald Williams, USN, Ret., 90, of Great Falls, passed away on Thursday, April 7, 2016 at Peace Hospice. Visitation will be from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. Friday, April 15, 2016 at O’Connor Memorial Chapel, 2425 8th Avenue North. Military honors will be held at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 16, 2016 at Hillcrest Mausoleum, 1410 13th Street South, with entombment to follow. Arrangements are in the care of O’Connor Funeral Home. John was born in New York City, attended Pennsylvania State College and the University of North Carolina as part of the Navy’s wartime college training program. He was commissioned as an Ensign in the United States Naval Reserve on October 27, 1945. He was qualified to command destroyers and has served at sea primarily in minesweepers and destroyer types, specifically: steel mine sweepersUSS Gavia (MSF-363) and USS Scoter (MSF-381); destroyer escortUSS Lewis (DE-535), Cleveland-class light cruiserUSS Manchester (CL-83), Gearing-class destroyerUSS Holder (DDE-819), ocean mine sweeper/non-magneticUSS Detector (MSO-429); and Gearing-class destroyerUSS Henry W. Tucker (DD-875), commanding the last two ships. While in command of the USS Henry W. Tucker it won the Battle Efficiency Award within Destroyer Squadron Three for the period ending Dec. 31, 1966. Ashore from 1947 to 1952, he served in special communications duties in the Washington D.C. area and in the then French Morocco. During this period he attended the Navy Language School and graduated as a qualified interpreter and translator of Russian. He served in the Office of the Director of Naval Communications (OPNAV) from 1956 to 1958, attended the Armed Forces Staff College in 1958, served on the joint staff of Commander U.S. Forces Japan from 1962 to 1965 and at the Naval Security Group Command from 1967 to the end of 1970 as Assistant Commander for Communications Security. In 1971 he served in the Republic of Vietnam as Assistant Chief of Staff for Communications on the combined staffs of Commander Naval Forces, Vietnam and Chief, Naval Advisory Group, United States Military Assistance Command where he managed US Navy communications facilities. He also served as Senior Communications Advisor whereby US communication facilities were smoothly transferred to the Vietnamese Navy. He specifically increased the emphasis on coastal surveillance and made an indispensable contribution to the Vietnamese Navy’s assumption of responsibility for coastal operations. He was awarded the Legion of Merit with the Combat “V” due to these efforts. In 1972 he attended George Washington University where he finished his college degree that he had started earlier in 1943 and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science. From 1974 to 1976 he served on the Staff of the Commandant, Headquarters Naval District Washington where he functioned due to geographic separation of the Military Personnel Department and a unique organization structure of the Headquarters as a de facto Commanding Officer of a Naval Station with Convening Authority for Special and Summary Courts-Martial. He retired from the US Navy in 1976. Subsequently he went to work for George Washington University creating and managing post-graduate classes for off-campus military sites. He has been awarded service medals for World War II, Korean and Vietnam Wars.