Lorenzo "Larry" Williams was born in Guam in 1934, the son of a Filipino seamstress and a US Marine. After surviving the Japanese occupation during World War II, the family immigrated to Corpus Christi, Texas, when Williams was 13. He graduated from WB Ray High School and Texas A&M University, where he received a degree in aerospace engineering and was commissioned into the US Air Force in 1958. Williams flew the C-130 gunship during the Vietnam War out of Naha Air Force Base in Okinawa, where he earned the Marine Corps Presidential Unit Citation for his efforts during the 1968 Tet Offensive. He retired as a major after 20 years and worked as an engineer on the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey and the Lockheed Martin F-22. Now retired from engineering, he and his wife of 62 years, Konnie, live in East Texas near the oldest of their four children and several of their 19 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.
