We extend our gratitude and appreciation to all who have served our country today. We also highlight and appreciate a couple of our own, Sumner McBee Williams, Jr. and his father, Sumner McBee Williams. Sumner Williams, Jr. and his wife, Jane Williams, were the founders of Camp High Rocks back in 1958.
These veterans are related to many of our current staff. Father and grandfather to Townsend Birdsong. Grandfather and great grandfather to Woody and Nate Noland as well as Mark and Benjamin Birdsong.
During World War II, he joined the Army Air Force in 1942, serving with the 737th Bomb Squad, 15th Air Force as a B-24 pilot. After completing his 35 missions, he returned to the states to be retrained as B-29 Pilot. That’s right, at the age of 19 he was not only a bomber Captain, but the mission leader!
After his service, he completed his education where he left off at Davidson College. He then did graduate work at Emory and later taught at The McCallie School, Westminster School, and Furman University. While teaching, he and Jane started working on what would later be Camp High Rocks.
Lieut. Col. Williams was born in Greenville, S. C., on Aug. 23, 1885, and was graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1908. After serving at various posts in the United States and the Philippine Islands, he took part in the Punitive Expedition into Mexico in 1916 and was aide de camp to Major Gen. Leonard Wood in the early months of our participation in the World War.
Promoted to the temporary rank of major, he served on the western front with the A. E. F. from Dec. 25, 1917, to March. 21, 1918, when he became assistant chief of staff of the Eighty-ninth Division. He was subsequently acting chief of staff of the Tenth Division in this country.
After the war he served with the cavalry, being transferred to the quartermaster corps in 1928. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1932. He was a graduate of the Command and General Staff School and the Army Industrial College. He had been on the general staff corps eligible list.
Our current staff would also like to thank their family members who served.
There are so many in the High Rocks legacy who have served. We thank you all!
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