Cameron Williams, a Silver Bluff High School senior, listened intently to Barry Jones during a conversation on Wednesday – excited about the chance to speak with the Army colonel, who had traveled much the same highschool path 29 years earlier.
Williams serves as the Naval Junior ROTC’s commanding officer. He led the annual Pass-in-Review event earlier that morning. Before Jones graduated from Silver Bluff in 1986, he was the unit’s executive officer.
“It’s an honor to meet somebody who had been my age here and has become the most successful person he can be,” Williams said. “I’ll always remember this and strive to be like him.”
Jones graduated from The Citadel, where he was a member of the prestigious Summerall Guards precision drill team. Jones’ military service took him to Iraq and Afghanistan on a number of deployments, in addition to other countries. After graduating from the Air War College at the Maxwell Air Force Base in Montgomery, Alabama, he was assigned to the Special Operations Joint Task Force in Afghanistan, his biography states. In 2013, he joined the Air War College faculty.
Senior Naval Science Instructor Ron Freeman has directed Silver Bluff’s NJROTC program for about 20 years. His predecessor, Griggs Wheeler, had that role when Jones attended the school.
“I was very active with NJ,” Jones said, “and Cmdr. Wheeler was a mentor to me. I focused early on that I wanted to go into the military.”
This was Jones’ second visit to the Pass-in-Review program, joined by his father, Gene, now living in Hartwell, Georgia.
“His connection to Silver Bluff does make it extra special when (graduates) come back,” Freeman said. “Our cadets have seen what it takes to be successful.”
Jones, too, welcomed the opportunity to speak with Williams, who plans to enlist in the Marine Corps to get his military service underway. The older man expressed his admiration for Williams’ determination.
“I told him not to let anyone tell him what he can’t do,” Jones said. “If he has the discipline, the motivation and the drive, nobody can stop him, no matter how high his goals are.”
Senior writer Rob Novit is the Aiken Standard’s education reporter and has been with the newspaper since September 2001. He is a native of Walterboro and majored in journalism at the University of Georgia.
