Ian Williams
Ian Edward Williams (born 18 October 1961) is a retired Continental Army general who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the professional head of the Continental Armed Forces, from 2016 until 2020. Before becoming the most senior officer in the military, Williams also served as Commanding General of Northern Command, of Third Army (Continental Army North), and of the 8th Armored Division. Before that he served as a tank commander and held staff positions on the Army Staff and the Joint Staff. Since retiring from the Army, in 2021 he was elected a member of the Central Committee of the 37th Congress of the Continentalist Party.
Ian Williams | |
|---|---|
 Official portrait, 2020 | |
| Born |
18 October 1961 Middlebury, Vermont, Congregationalist States, U.C. |
| Allegiance |
 United Commonwealth |
| Service/ |
 Continental Army |
| Years of service | 1979–2020 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands held | |
| Battles/wars | |
| Awards | See awards and decorations |
| Alma mater | |
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Central institution membership
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Early life and education
Ian Williams was born on 18 October 1961 in Middlebury, Vermont, Congregationalist States, to a family of Scottish ancestry. His grandfather, James Williams, fought in Great War I and was wounded during the occupation of Superior by an insurgent attack. James Williams retired from the Continental Army with the rank of lieutenant colonel. That family history was part of the reason why he also decided to join the Army. Williams attended the West Point Academy and was commissioned as a second lieutenant after his graduation in 1983 with a degree in general engineering. He also completed the Army Airborne School, Armor School, and Ranger School during the 1980s, though his specialty is being an armor officer. He graduated from Continental Army War College in 2002.
Military career
He was stationed Missouri during the late 1980s and early 1990s, on the border with Tournesol, where he served in various roles in an armored regiment and participated in many Chattanooga Pact military drills with the Tourneser People's Army. His unit was prepared to fight a land war against an invasion from the west. From 1996 to 1999 Williams served as military attaché at the Continental Embassy in Angola and in that capacity was the chief military advisor to the MPLA, the Marxist political movement in the Angolan Civil War. He participated in the planning of the successful Operation Restore, which destroyed the majority of UNITA's remaining military forces, and was personally involved in implementing the operation at the front. Following that assignment, he attended and graduated the Army War College, and afterwards worked on the Army Staff as Director of Training from 2002 to 2004 and then on the Joint Staff of the Central Military Commission as Director of Force Structure, Resources, and Assessment until 2006.
During his time on the Army Staff and Joint Staff, he developed a new Army Combat Physical Training program, that became known as the "Soldier Athlete" program and replaced the previous standards for physical training in Army basic training. It was made in consultation with Olympic and Sportintern athletes and coaches. In May 2006 he was promoted to brigadier general and became Vice Director of the Joint Staff. Promoted to major general in September 2008, Williams was given a field command by becoming Commanding General of the 8th Armored Division in Missouri. Holding the post for a year, he was then promoted to lieutenant general and assigned as Commanding General of Continental Army North/Third Army, in October 2009. In that capacity he had responsibility for leading the Army ground forces and providing support for the civil and Party authorities in the northeastern United Commonwealth, including the states and regions of Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, New York, New Jersey, Ontario, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maine. In 2011 he participated in organizing one of the largest drills in the region in recent decades to improve Army North's coordination with the local governments and respond faster to potential emergencies. He became responsible for all military forces in the Northeast when he was promoted to general and named as Commanding General of Northern Command in July 2012.
As the head of NORTHCOM, in 2015 Williams worked with the Navy to restore anti-submarine patrols in the Atlantic Ocean to what PBS described as their highest levels since the end of the Cold War, in response to increased Royal Navy activity in the North Atlantic. He also established the closer cooperation of Northern Command with the Quebec Armed Forces and the Revolutionary Army of the Maritimes to secure the northern half of Eastern North America, which he identified as facing threats from NTO members Manitoba and the United Kingdom. In January 2016 he told PBS that the region around the northeastern U.C. was witnessing levels of NTO military activity not seen since the Cold War.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
General Williams was appointed as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the head of the Continental Armed Forces, in February 2016 by the nomination of President Helene Poirier. In his first address to the Continental military since becoming Chairman, he said his priority is "rebuilding the forces after the past decade of reductions and cost-saving measures, which eroded our capability, and to restore our status as the strongest military in the Americas." His program was later supported by President Anthony Malito, who wanted to make the Continental military "stronger than it has ever been."
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In 2017, at the 60th commemoration of the victory in Great War II by the Allied powers that took place in Brazoria, he met with General Mike Bennett, his counterpart in the Sierran Crown Armed Forces. They discussed establishing a communication line between the Pendleton Military Center and the Pentagon to prevent any kind of misunderstandings between the Sierran and Continental armed forces, especially with regards to Syria, where Egypt and its Continental military advisors were providing assistance to the exiled members of the Syrian opposition. The United Commonwealth officially denied undermining the efforts of Sierra and the ISAF in Syria but continued to provide aid to the "moderate opposition" that was aligned with the Landonist International. It was rumored that this meeting was partly in response to an incident in August 2016 in southern Syria, where it was alleged that Continental and Egyptian special forces got into a fight with Syrian National Army troops backed by Sierran ISAF units near the Palestinian border. The details of their talks were kept secret from the public, but a brief press statement from the Pentagon about the meeting with the Sierran military leader said that the fundamentals of the United Commonwealth's policy in Syria remains unchanged.
Later that year he also was on the organizing committee for the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Continental Revolution in 1917, which was also the anniversary of the establishment of the Continental Army and the Revolutionary Army. Williams' role and contribution was by putting together a massive military parade in Chicago and smaller parades by local units in all other major cities across the country. It was the largest military parade in recent Continental history, and was attended by nearly every senior official in the Party and the government.
During his time as Chairman of the Joint Staff, he also expanded the number of Continental troops deployed as advisors or in other capacities abroad, to allies of the Chattanooga Pact and the Landonist International. This includes North Vietnam, the United People's Committees, Tournesol, Spain, Italy, Mozambique, and the Equatorial States. In 2018 The Bunker Hill Journal described Williams as being in charge of implementing Malito's efforts "to undermine Sierran allies and military efforts around the world," and setting up a network of Continental military bases to rival that of Sierra. Furthermore, the article called it the largest expansion of the United Commonwealth's global military presence since the Cold War. Partly related to those efforts, in early 2019 he announced the creation of Security Force Assistance Brigades (SFAB). They would undergo a training program overseen by the Army Special Forces and would provide military assistance to the United Commonwealth's allied militaries. Williams said in a press release that that units would be embedded with the armies of Continental armies to provide infantry and tactical training, thereby increasing their capability.
Williams stepped down as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and retired from the military in April 2020, shortly after the inauguration of President Daniel Muir. Although he was approaching the end of the conventional term length for the office of Chairman, the Sierran media speculated that him stepping down was also indicative of President Muir's desire for a less confrontational approach towards the Western Bloc.
Political career
After leaving the military he entered Continentalist Party politics in the Congregationalist States, and was elected in 2021 as a member of the 37th Central Committee of the Continentalist Party. Prior to that election, some observers in the Continental media speculated that he might position himself for the post of Continentalist Party First Secretary of his home state Vermont, but he denied those rumors in September 2020. Several months later it was announced that Williams would become a member of the Central Committee of the Party.
A controversy emerged in 2022 because of his image of being closely associated with President Malito, who had supported Williams' program of expanding the U.C. military before his own removal from power. Williams himself always tried to maintain an image of a military professional loyal to the Party, but some of his former subordinates later told the media in 2022 that he had said to officers of the Joint Staff that he sympathized with "Malitoism," including Continental nationalism and a more aggressive foreign policy against the capitalist West. In response to this, Williams said that he and the military were "always loyal to the Party, and professionally executed our duties to defend the United Commonwealth from all enemies, foreign and domestic, while in uniform." Williams continues to be criticized for his association with Malito by the far-left of the Continentalist Party, and he has said that the government's conviction of the former Continental president for corruption was "regrettable" and a "far-left witch hunt," also saying that "in my experience of working with the president, he was a patriotic Marxist-Landonist and Continentalist, nothing less."
Since the start of the 2021–23 Caribbean diplomatic crisis, Williams criticized President Muir's policies for being too "weak" and "passive" by not doing enough to provide support to the United Commonwealth's ally, the Andes, after an incident involving the sinking of a Brazilian warship.
Awards and decorations
Parachutist Brevet
Airborne Badge
Ranger Badge
Parachutist Badge
Joint Staff Badge
Army Staff Badge
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See also
| Military offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lt. Gen. Douglas Baker
|
Commanding General Army North/Third Army 2009–2012 |
Succeeded by Lt. Gen. Jack Ellingwood
|
| Preceded by Gen. Ross Matlock
|
Commanding General Northern Command 2012−2016 |
Succeeded by Adm. Calvin Lang
|
| Preceded by Adm. Gunther Lorenz
|
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff 2016−2020 |
Succeeded by Gen. Ben Kingston
|