When you first see him or, as I did, chat with him over the phone, you are a bit taken aback by the fact that Chris Williams seems as out of place as Mark Twain’s ‘Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.’ But here he is, living comfortably in a pocket of northern New Mexico, a place he never even heard of before landing here.
Williams, whose boyhood was spent ricocheting between Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with his wife, Sharon, (an offspring of a long-standing New Mexico Arellano family) and a women he met on one of his first visits, is now part of the fabric of this historic New Mexico hamlet. “I came down to visit from Denver and fell in love with the area,” Williams said. “At this point, I don’t see myself living anywhere else. This is it.”
Williams is also a military and disabled veteran, having served more than a decade in both the Air Force and the Army National Guard, including a couple of deployments. He’s hoping he will soon get word from the Veterans Administration on his claim for total disability.
Williams’ disability is the result of a traumatic head injury sustained in the first Gulf War. Headaches involving various levels of pain are a single facet of his disability. But disability has not stopped him from working with fellow veterans who live both far and wide in the open spaces near Costilla, New Mexico.
Williams is a member of two veterans organization, the American Legion and the VFW, in Costilla County. He holds the rank of Senior Vice Commander in the Cerro, New Mexico, VFW Post 9516. Post 9516 is also where a lot of his energy is directed.
The post had been closed for several years, Williams said. Shuttering is often a regular consequence among rural veterans’ clubs. A lot of members, WWII, Korea and Viet Nam veterans, he said, have died or simply grown too old to pump life into the clubs. But while he can’t put a date on it, renovations on the Cerro club, he promises, will return it to life and provide a post for the many Latino veterans who reside in the communities of Costilla and Cerro. The commander of VFW Post 9516 is Corey Mead.
In the meantime, it will provide a place, perhaps a threadbare one, for the community of veterans across this endless stretch of New Mexico to call home. The VFW Post 9516 in Cerro serves the surrounding community well. In the vastness of northern New Mexico, it hosts weddings and special events. It also sponsors motorcycle rallies, including the holidays Toys for Tots and the Not Forgotten Outreach runs. Williams, a biker himself.
Military service in his family goes back, he said, to the beginning of the country with most of his family connected to the Navy. He broke that string when, after high school, he opted for the Air Force. He said his father’s only consolation was, ‘at least it wasn’t the Marines.’
In the Air Force Williams worked as a guidance system control specialist, a job working on an aircraft’s auto pilot and the countless other sensors essential in completing the mission. In the seven years Williams has lived in this out-of-the-way stretch of northern New Mexico, he has become a part of the community. In addition to the work he does for and with veterans, he is also a member of the local volunteer fire department.
When he’s not working with his fellow veterans or answering a fire call, Williams and wife, Sharon, operate a dog rescue in Costilla. It’s a connection that even shocks Williams. Until moving here, his only connection with animals was long ago family cats. Today there are three felines who, along with his rescues—now numbering 28—that share the couple’s home today.
Willams’ veterans work and his dog rescue operation has made him a ‘go-to’ guy in his adopted community. But neither role came easily, he said with a chuckle. “The first year and a half was brutal,” said the east coast transplant. “I was the only White guy within twenty miles,” he remembers. “Locals don’t deal well with outsiders, and I was definitely that.
All in all the military has a way of uniting soldiers in the service and as veterans. The many northern New Mexico veterans (family names) who have proudly served their country include Lucero, Romero, Duran, Vallejos, Maes, Martinez, Mead, Archuleta, Vigil, Mascareñas, Rivera, Galvez, Malouff, DeHerrera, Trujillo, Arguello, Arellano, Quintana and so many more.
The Pennsylvania native said there is no plan to change course. Just as in the military, he said. You don’t walk away until the job is done and there’s still work to do.
