A Time to Every Purpose Under Heaven
From the Archives: Winter 2013
James Williams, Former Ashe County Sheriff
Looking back on my life, it has become crystal clear to me that every one of us is here for a reason. When I was young, I didn’t realize that God was molding me and preparing me for a journey filled with things I’d only heard about or seen on television.
I was drafted into the army in 1969. I served with the 260th Military Police company in South Korea. After my time was up, I came home to West Jefferson, North Carolina. While I was home, I met a beautiful girl named Mary. After meeting Mary, there was no doubt in my mind that I wanted to make her my wife. During our courtship, I heard about a job opening at the West Jefferson Police Department. Since I had some law enforcement training in the military, I decided to apply for the job, and I got it. I was the youngest officer ever hired in West Jefferson.
Mary and I were wed on June 30, 1972. I started working with the WJPD on July 4th. I worked my way through the ranks and became captain. I enjoyed working at the police department, but I had a desire to serve at the sheriff’s department, where all of the action was. I went to talk to Corky Miller, who is now known as a legendary sheriff in these parts. Corky hired me. I served the sheriff’s department for 20 years, attaining the rank of lieutenant. A position for chief of WJPD opened up, and the town asked me to take that job. At first I turned it down, but after talking it over with my wife and praying about it, I decided to take the job. I served as chief of police for 8 years. I had a great experience there, and got along well with the WJPD staff and the city manager. It was a great season.
Even though I thoroughly enjoyed being chief, I always felt that someday I would be sheriff. I had a good relationship with the people. I’ve never been the type of guy to try to act superior to anyone. I’ve always been a regular guy, and I think that’s why I get along so well with others. I was having trouble deciding whether or not I should take the step of becoming sheriff. I was in church one Sunday and my pastor, John Elledge, preached a sermon about God’s plan that everyone is here to fulfill a purpose. I felt like he was preaching right to me, and from that moment on, I knew that I was going to run for sheriff.
I had 30 years of law enforcement in, so the timing was perfect. I retired in December of 2005 and filed to run for sheriff. I was elected sheriff in 2006, and in 2010, I was the first sheriff in the history of Ashe County to run unopposed. I’ve never considered my job to be political. I have over a hundred employees, and their political affiliations do not concern me. I look for people who are going to do their job and serve this county to the best of their abilities. So far, it’s been a good run.
This road that God has placed me on hasn’t been an easy one. I was shot once, in 1974. The bullet shot straight through my shoulder without hitting bone or arteries. It should have killed me. The bullet miraculously escaped bone and tissue, and I survived. I know that God was protecting me because I was supposed to be sheriff.
Probably the scariest experience, and the closest I’ve ever come to death, was when I was in a helicopter crash back in 1986. It was a beautiful clear day in July. My friend Bob Kennedy, who worked for the Boone Police Department, and I were doing drug eradication flights, looking for marijuana and such. We were heading back from the southern end of the county to the airport to refuel. When we were getting ready to fly over the ridge, all at once the engine quit. We were right over West Jefferson, and all we could see was asphalt, power lines, concrete, and buildings! There was nowhere to go. Immediately, we started looking for a place to land that helicopter. I could see a big roof on top of a warehouse, and I told Bob to land there, but he said, “We can’t make it that far!” We finally picked out a gravel parking lot on a back street. That was our goal: to get to that parking lot, do an auto rotation and set the chopper down, and survive.
We never made it to the gravel parking lot. When we got closer, we saw big power lines that we couldn’t see when we started, so we had to use what little speed we had to flare the chopper over the power lines. We couldn’t have missed them by five inches! After we lost speed, the chopper took a dive straight into the roof of a brick building with a flat roof. We crashed.
The only way to describe how it felt was that the chopper just stopped, and it felt like someone threw a building at me. The impact was loud and horrific. Bob and I were injured, in pain, and we could smell fuel, but we were alive! God had a reason to spare our lives. Once again, I cheated death, and I knew that it was God looking over me and protecting me, because you just don’t walk away from those kinds of things and survive.
No two days have been alike, and despite the wrecks, high speed chases, domestic disputes, and other dangerous events that have taken place, here I am as sheriff, doing the job that God intended for me to do.
Once while I was running for sheriff, a lady came up to me and said that I had saved her life. She reminded me of a time when her boyfriend was beating her and threatening to kill her. I got her out of a dim-lit trailer that reeked of alcohol. I told her to never go back there again, or her boyfriend would kill her. She said she took my advice and never went back, and it’s a good thing, because later, her ex-boyfriend killed his next girlfriend and himself. It’s moments like that that make the bad moments worthwhile.
Looking back, would I do it all over again? Yes, I would. I believe that God put me here to fulfill this job. That being said, I consider it an honor to serve my county.
Everyone has a purpose, and just like I tell my two precious grandsons, “You are here for a reason. If you’re not sure where God wants you to be, just listen to your heart. I can’t promise you that your road will be easy, but if you’re on God’s road, I promise you that it will be worthwhile.”
