Sarah Williams was raised in Grand Marais, Minnesota, a small town of 1,200 people on the shores of Lake Superior. In the 8th grade, she decided she wanted to join the military, and thanks to a great guidance counselor in high school was encouraged to apply to a service academy. She was commissioned a Second Lieutenant at the United States Air Force Academy in 1997 with a Bachelor of Science in Management. She set her sights on serving in a position working with people and chose aircraft maintenance. Throughout the first half of her career, she served in a variety of aircraft maintenance positions spanning five Major Commands and deployed in
support of Operations NORTHERN and SOUTHERN WATCH, JOINT FORGE, IRAQI
FREEDOM, and ENDURING FREEDOM.
After these operational tours, she was selected for squadron command at Grand Forks AFB and
Sheppard AFB. She then served on the Air Combat Command staff writing policy and training
for 44,300 maintainers and led an operational planning team for the Joint Strike Fighter with nine
partner nations. After staff, Sarah served as a deputy group commander at Beale AFB,
California, supporting the Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance mission with U-2 and
Global Hawk aircraft. She then moved to Suffolk, Virginia, as an Observer/Trainer for the Joint
Staff J7 Joint Force Development Directorate, advising combatant commands and senior leaders
on best practices.
Sarah was most recently a logistics planner for HQ USSOCOM. She coordinated logistics
support for 70,000 SOF personnel through acquisition, sustainment, and resourcing of SOF
assets developed planning input for DoD, Joint Staff, GCCs, Services and Government agencies
on logistics, and performed strategic-level campaign planning, development, and assessment of
global SOF and compartmented activities.
Sarah is a lifetime member of the Logistics Officer Association and Air Force Association. She
is active in the local community in the National Defense Industrial Association, Women in
Defense, The American Legion, and The Humane Society of Tampa Bay. She is on the advisory
panel for the Military Aviation Logistics and Maintenance Symposium and is currently serving
as an intern for the Global Special Operations Foundation.
Sarah lives in Tampa, Florida, with her German Shepherd Blaze.
