U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Cristopher Williams, a Class of 2007 graduate of Smith-Cotton High School, was selected to serve as the narrator for the September 11 ceremony at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska, where President Joe Biden also delivered his 9/11 address to the nation.

Williams learned on September 7 that there would be auditions to serve as narrator for the September 11 ceremony. Elmendorf-Richardson, known as JBER, is a joint base for the Air Force and the U.S. Army, so he would be competing with personnel from both branches. By the end of the day, he learned he was selected for the role.

“After being notified, I immediately started writing and editing my portion of the ceremony,” Williams said. “What made this portion difficult was that each edition required approval from White House staff. Every time I would make edits and changes, they would then make theirs, which weren’t always in line. Each day leading up to the event there was a different version of the script.”

The final version was approved at 3:30 a.m. the day of the ceremony. While the process was frustrating, Williams said the experience made it all worthwhile. His goal was to get people to feel the weight of what happened on September 11, 2001, and to reflect on what was lost that day.

Williams was the JBER Noncommissioned Officer of the Year in 2020. You can read the entire speech written by Williams by visiting clicking 911-Speech-TechSgt-CWilliams.