06/08/2026
Congratulations to Winter, WI astronaut Jeff Williams on his selection to be inducted into the Wisconsin Aviation Hall of Fame in October!!!!!!!!!!!!
The dinner and ceremony are October 10 at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, WI. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased here https://www.wahf.org/rsvp/
Here is Jeff's bio and pictures that I included in his nomination packet.
Biography of Jeff Williams
Jeff Williams, born in 1958, grew up on the family farm in the small, northern town of Winter, Wisconsin. A close-knit family, his parents and grandfather modeled and instilled in him the values and characteristics that would shape his life. While working with his grandfather learning carpentry and building homes together, he also learned about character and work ethic from the wise older man. His dad, a history teacher turned guidance counselor and U.S. Forest Service ranger who grew up in extreme poverty, taught Jeff perseverance, the importance of education, and love of the outdoors. When Jeff joined the Boy Scouts it was so he could camp year-round and do more hunting, fishing, and snowmobiling.
Jeff was always busy with school, sports, chores, working with Grandpa, and part-time jobs. He knew that living on the farm was not the future for him and set his sights on attending college. It was his dad who recommended attending West Point, and with the endorsement of Senator William Proxmire, that is where he went.
West Point in New York was a massive change for Jeff. His 1976 graduating high school class had 34 students; now he was one of over a thousand. This was his first time being with a diverse group of students. He was hundreds of miles away from home by himself. The school curriculum and rigid military lifestyle was like nothing he had experienced in Winter. His parents would have supported his decision to leave and move back home, but his dad asked Jeff a life changing question, “Will you be happy with yourself if you quit? What really matters is what you think of yourself. That will last a lifetime.”
Jeff’s introduction to aviation came from aeronautical engineering courses and joining the Sport Parachute Club and later the Sport Parachute Team at West Point. Jeff found the ultimate feeling of freedom while floating in the air. He also became interested in the helicopters and planes he traveled in and jumped out of. Then he met astronaut Bob Stewart and the T-38 he flew to West Point from Houston, Texas. This meeting sparked a thought inside Jeff, “Maybe that is something I could do.” All of this, combined with spending time with pilots, led Jeff to pursue flight school, become an aviator, and ultimately a NASA astronaut.
After earning a degree in applied science and engineering from West Point in 1980, a short assignment at Fort Benning, Georgia for Infantry Officer Basic Course, and another short course at Fort McClellan, Alabama on nuclear, chemical, and biological warfare, Jeff was ordered to Fort Rucker, Alabama for rotary wing flight school. He was finally going to fly! Here he learned to fly Army helicopters including the TH-55, UH-1H, and OH-58A. For the next three years, 1981-1984, Jeff was stationed in Hanau, West Germany with the A Company of the 503rd Aviation Battalion, 3rd Armor Division. In addition to flying helicopters during this time, Jeff also honed his leadership skills.
Upon his return from West Germany, Jeff moved into the new Army aviation branch and returned to Fort Rucker, Alabama to attend the Aviation Officers Advance Course. He was only at Fort Rucker for six months before being awarded the Daedalian Fellowship, a full-ride graduate school scholarship to get a degree in aeronautical engineering. Jeff decided the best place for his studies was at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) in California. Being an astronaut was still on Jeff’s mind; in fact, he had already applied once but received no response. On the way to California, he stopped in Houston, Texas to visit Jim Adamson, a friend and former West Point teacher of his who was now an astronaut. Jim showed him around Johnson Space Center and introduced him to George Abbey, the man in charge of NASA’s astronaut program.
Drawing on the work ethic he learned from his family, Jeff graduated from NPS in 1987 with not one, but two degrees—Master of Science in aeronautical engineering and the degree of Aeronautical Engineer. He also found time to earn his fixed-wing license flying the T-34, Cessna 150, 152, and 172. With two new degrees in hand, Jeff had a hard decision to make—accept the offer to be a test pilot at Edwards Air Force Base or work at NASA as an engineer in support of the Space Shuttle Program. He had finally heard back about his astronaut application, went through all the testing and interviews, but was not selected. He chose to work at NASA knowing it would get him closer to his ultimate dream.
In 1987 when Jeff began his 4-year Army assignment at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, it had been over a year since the Space Shuttle Challenger accident, and shuttles were not yet back to flying. As an engineer Jeff was part of making the extensive design changes necessary for returning to flight. Over the years he worked with post-flight solid rocket boosters, oversaw the shuttle back-up landing site at White Plains, New Mexico, supported the launch of the Magellan space probe aboard Space Shuttle Atlantis, and served as crew representative supporting the construction of Space Shuttle Endeavour. To fuel his passion for flying he continued to fly helicopters including the AH-1 Cobra.
As the end of Jeff’s four years with NASA were approaching he had another decision to make. He had applied to be an astronaut three times and was turned down each time. What else could he do to make himself a better candidate in the next application cycle? He applied, and was accepted, to the Naval Test Pilot School (TPS) at Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland. During his year in TPS Jeff flew fifty types of aircraft including helicopters, jets, cargo planes, and gliders topping it off by graduating first in his class.
Late summer of 1993 found Jeff back at Edwards Air Force Base in California for two years where he served as the Flight Test Division Chief in the Army’s Airworthiness Qualification Test Directorate and was the lead test pilot of the OH-58D(I). Jeff was in heaven having the opportunity to fly everything possible. In 1995 the Army sent him to school again to get yet another graduate degree. For this one Jeff chose to enroll in the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island, and earned a Master of Arts in National Security and Strategic Studies.
NASA was accepting astronaut applications again in 1996; Jeff applied for the fifth time and he was accepted. He was finally going to do what he had been dreaming about since his days at West Point. Even though Jeff had been a pilot for over fifteen years, he did not qualify to be a pilot for NASA due to most of his flight time being in helicopters. Instead, he would be a flight engineer and train for Extra Vehicular Activities (EVAs), both roles drawing on the education and training gained throughout his life. Of particular excitement to him was the beginning of construction of the International Space Station (ISS). Jeff’s work on the ISS began prior to his first space flight. He was assigned to work at Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama on the construction of the United States’ laboratory module, Destiny.
STS-101, launched in May 2000 on Space Shuttle Atlantis, was Jeff’s first space flight. This was the third mission devoted to construction of the ISS, and Jeff was a flight engineer and lead spacewalker. The crew’s primary objective, through an EVA, was to assemble the Russian-built manual crane, Strela, which would be used for future ISS construction. Because he would be working with Russian equipment, he had to travel to Russia to train. This was the first of many trips to Russia for him and the beginning of his life-long respect for the people, language, and culture.
Jeff’s next three space flights, Expedition 13 in 2006, Expedition 21-22 in 2009, and Expedition 47-48 in 2016, were each six-month missions to the ISS for which he launched and landed in Kazakhstan in a Soyuz spacecraft. Due to the extensive collaboration between the United States and Russia, he had to learn to speak Russian and spent several weeks at a time training in Russia. For these missions Jeff served as flight engineer and twice as station commander. He did several EVAs to complete the construction of the ISS. While the majority of his time on the ISS was taken up with work, Jeff did find opportunities to reflect and enjoy where he was and what he was doing by sending the first live tweet, setting a record for the most time in space which still stands for male astronauts, and setting a record believed to never be broken for taking the most pictures from space. The best of these pictures he published in a book, The Work of His Hands: A View of God’s Creation from Space.
In between training and missions, NASA kept Jeff extremely busy with various roles. He served in the EVA, Space Station, and Soyuz branches of the Astronaut Office; led the development of the Space Shuttle cockpit upgrade; supported legislative affairs at NASA Headquarters in Washington D. C.; commanded a nine-day NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operation (NEEMO) coral reef mission aboard the Aquarius underwater laboratory; served as backup crew for Expeditions 12, 19, and 20; served as backup for the one-year flight spanning Expeditions 43-46; was Assistant Director of Flight Operations at Johnson Space Center; and was the Chair of the Multinational Crew Operations Panel.
Jeff retired from the Army in 2007 and from NASA in 2024. Through his 27 years of military service and 27 years as a NASA astronaut, Jeff logged 3,100 hours in more than 50 different aircraft, logged 534 days in space, logged five EVAs lasting 32 hours, logged 9 days underwater, and spent time in space with 56 people from eight countries. He continues to belong to organizations such as Society of Experimental Test Pilots, Association of Space Explorers, Army Aviation Association of America, US Military Academy Association of Graduates, and Officer Christian Fellowship.
Honors and Awards
• Admiral William Adger Moffett Award for Excellence in Aeronautical Engineering
• Daedalian Foundation Fellowship Award for Graduate Study in Aeronautics
• 2 Defense Superior Service Medals
• 2 Legions of Merit
• 2 Meritorious Service Medals
• Army Commendation Medal
• 4 NASA Space Flight Medals
• NASA Distinguished Service Medal
• NASA Exceptional Service Medal
• Master Army Aviator
• Army Aviation Order of Saint Michael Bronze, Silver, and Gold
• Army Aviation Hall of Fame
• Doctor of Ministry, The Master’s Seminary (Los Angeles, California)
• Honorary Doctor of Business Administration, Johnson and Wales University (Providence, Rhode Island)
• Honorary Doctor of Science, Grove City College (Grove City, Pennsylvania)
• Honorary Doctor of Science, University of Messina (Messina, Sicily, Italy)
• Biography, Zero Gravity, the Story of Astronaut Jeff Williams and His 534 Days in Space, Chris Anderson, 2025
