The distance between Ronald Williams and his family is so far that Google maps can't calculate the directions.

Williams, a gunnery sergeant in the U.S. Marine Corps, is deployed with Marine Wing Support Squadron 371 and based at Camp Leatherneck in the Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Williams' family is in Yuma, Ariz., awaiting his return next spring.

While this isn't Williams' first deployment away from his family — wife Jennifer and three teenagers — it's the first time in his 18-year Marine career that he's been deployed to a combat zone. Williams, serving as a military policeman, commands about 50 Marines who, when not deployed, are based in Yuma.

His unit's job is to provide convoy security on re-supply missions to the Marines' forward bases. The unit recently wrapped up "Task Force Nomad," which provided security for other Marines who were constructing and improving helicopter landing zones along the Helmand River. The unit has been in Afghanistan two months and is scheduled to rotate home in April.

"We've been pretty busy since we've been out here," Williams said in a Nov. 22 interview with the Journal. "We've spent quite a bit of time outside the wire."

Williams, a Francis Howell High School graduate from St. Charles County, said the convoys for which his unit provides security might have a dozen or so vehicles protected by four gun trucks to get them safely from point A to point B. He said each trip so far has been uneventful.

"We try to do (convoys) in the safest manner possible," Williams said. "We do a lot of night convoys so we don't go through towns with a lot of the population up and out. When (Afghans) do see us they're in awe of our vehicles and machinery."

As the staff noncommissioned officer in charge of his unit, Williams said he's taken on a different attitude toward this deployment.

"They all (the men in his unit) want to go out and do exciting stuff and I just want to get them back safely," Williams said.

Extensive training for a year in Twenty-Nine Palms, Calif., helped get Williams' unit ready for its deployment. He said that training has proven invaluable since their arrival in Afghanistan and that the Marines under his command have done an outstanding job.

"There's no platoon that's more ready than these guys," Williams said.

Since the U.S. sent troops to Afghanistan late in 2001, the fighting has waned in the winter and ramped up in the spring. That's because a lot of the clashes between U.S. troops and the Taliban often occur in the mountainous regions of the country.

"That's historic since we've been here, but we don't know how it will be this year," Williams cautioned.

Williams said his unit would be working on Thanksgiving Day, didn't really get any days off during the entire deployment and that sometimes it's hard to remember what day of the week it is. He expected, however, that his Marines would be served a traditional Thanksgiving dinner.

While the U.S. is in the process of drawing down the number of its troops in Afghanistan, Williams said work continues with the Afghan government to stabilize the country. Gaining support of the civilian population is key for the Marines to accomplish that goal. When his unit is out on a convoy, it can't prohibit Afghan civilian movement on the roads, he said.

"We have to allow them to pass through our convoys, and that's the winning of hearts and minds kind of thing," Williams said. "I think we're doing a bang-up job, actually."

On the home front

Williams plans to retire from the Marines when he reaches 20 years of service. After leaving the Marines, he plans to move back to Missouri and start a new career. His father has moved to Georgia and his mother lives in Unionville, Mo., where Williams owns a home.

Williams said that after 20 years of being part of the police with the Marines, he will step away from that field and might start his own private investigation business.

Williams met Jennifer at a pool party in St. Peters more than two decades ago. They attended the same church at the time and have been married for 21 years. Jennifer is from O'Fallon.

Jennifer said she communicates with her husband mostly through email and that talking to him on the phone is hit or miss. She said she's always concerned about his safety because of where he's at.

"I pray a lot," she said from their home in Yuma. "It's hard being a single parent for months at a time. I do pretty well. I have friends who are supportive."

Jennifer said their three children have handled Williams' latest deployment very well and their 15-year-old son keeps busy by playing football. Their oldest daughter, who is 19, attends college in San Diego.

Even with one of the children away at college, Williams said he still knows it's hard for his wife to keep the household running smoothly for months at a time.

"It's a lot harder job for her than it is for me," he said. "And I mean that with all sincerity."