Shortly thereafter, Chad turned on a television one morning to learn first hand how precious and costly freedom is as his eyes met a screen that portrayed a smiling still image of his mentor followed by Scott's birthdate separated by a *dash* March 31, 2004. What immediately followed his mentor's smiling image on the screen was video footage of man that was like a second father, viciously murdered and mutilated as Helvenston was dragged through the streets of Fallujah, Iraq and hung upside-down from the Euphrates River Bridge while an enraged Iraqi mob repeatedly chanted in Arabic, “Fallujah is the graveyard of Americans.”
Steeled in his resolve to walk in his Helvenston's footsteps and become a SEAL in honor and memory of his good friend, Chad entered the military's most grueling and difficult training as a part of BUD/S class 254, ultimately becoming 1 of the 13 men to graduate out of an original class number of 173 trainees.
Serving his country proudly as a Navy SEAL, Chad Williams spent his time on SEAL Teams One and then Seven, witnessing the horrors of war first hand, even fighting his way alongside his Team through a premeditated ambush in Iraq, near the location that took Helvenston's life in a similar scenario.