Mission Man Memorial

The first time I met Paul, I was unsure what I had gotten myself into. He was a friend of a friend who was interested in missions. That’s what we called Urban Exploration events in 1998 before we knew it was a popular hobby. He was quiet but passionate. As I came to know him, Paul seemed like a good friend who routinely made poor life decisions. Though he was never my friend specifically, we came to trust each other enough to face death together again and again.

I didn’t immediately catch that he was older than my sophomore-year peers, so his access to a car, which he had modified extensively, as well as his talk of older missions, made me feel I was at quite a disadvantage. His handle, I mean his made-up name for missions, was Mission Man. Mission was literally his name.

Go Time

The first Mission Man mission I recall was to a tunnel. I remember being stuffed in the back of his blue 1994 Pontiac Sunbird with that song Confusion from the Blade soundtrack on repeat for over an hour as we made our way through the broken rural spaces of Massachusetts.

I was so taken with all of it, having a family of friends, moving with purpose, having our shared soundtrack, and of course penetrating the deepest heart of winter with overwhelming technological superiority, that I fell in love with this singular moment and sadly, held on to it for far too long. I think he did too.

The second big mission with MM, I recall, was to New York to meet an old exploration group named Jinx. Jinx had a website that, to this day, my explorer friends, many of whom are also web people, still remains one of the most advanced and attractive websites, more than a decade after Jinx’s demise. They had a magazine, and they explored the city in suits. Meeting Jinx was like getting called to MI6 headquarters to college-age explorers deeply rooted in militarism. In preparation for this trip, Paul polished his leather jacket. I remember thinking how strange that was, but maybe, I thought, I didn’t know anything about leather jackets. Then as we are getting into a cab to go to the meeting MM was like “last time I was in the back of a Crown Vic I was in handcuffs.” It turns out for shooting random people with a blow dart gun. During the ensuing meeting, MM stands outside the office and guards the door for “possible hostiles.” 

The final MM mission to consider, though there were many others, was a major operation with another exploration group at the asylum. My group was tasked with ferrying about 30 people. Accomplishing this required a car dropping our guests off in small clusters at a spot some distance away at regular intervals; each cluster needed to be walked through the darkness along footpaths with no lighting so as not to attract security as well as to preserve their night adaptation which they would need and ultimately delivered to another guide just inside the state hospital walls after a final frantic sprint across open terrain once we cleared the tree line.

The operation had a lot of moving parts, not to mention an active security presence whose rightful course of action would be to call the state police should they detect our little game. Mission Man alone took security entirely out of the equation by sneaking underneath the security trailer with a radio for the initial phase. Now I knew when to expect company. At the time, cell phones were prohibitively expensive, so the guard would have had to use the landline in the trailer, which MM could hear through the open windows.  

Hail and Farewell

Because I was not directly his friend, I can only speak of some of the troubles I may have observed in him with a high degree of uncertainty. He said he suffered from occasional seizures and that this was the source of a few car accidents. I can’t know for sure, but I only encountered the idea of seizures to frame the accidents and not as a day-to-day concern. Together with sadness and a current of helplessness sweeping through him in the quiet moments, I suspect that the car accidents may have been suicide attempts. 

There were smaller clues of self-destructiveness as well, including chain smoking, drugs that I only ever heard about but feel confident he may have burned out on, and an inability to adapt. Paul loved cars and loved working on them. He seemed happiest when he had a stable job at a print company that afforded him stability and extra income to fashion his ride… which was also named the Mission Man because he printed his name in vinyl letters and fixed it to the rear window. To memory, this was the first named vehicle in the IRONFIST fleet. He could only try to move in the direction of working on cars for work. He never moved on to craft another skill, if only to pay rent. If he did, he did not speak to me about it, but again, we only ever spoke of mission.

Tragically, he could not find ways to live outside of his fixations, even if to support those things. I say this as the only other team member quite as obsessed as he seemed to be, and I know well the costs of my fixations and just how hard that was to change. When he died, Paul left a 7-year-old son behind. I have no idea where the mom is. Paul and I had quite the argument a year before he passed, and you can imagine just how mad it makes me that one of my men would leave a kid like that. Still, he is greatly missed. When someone you’ve shared the stare of death with is gone, it is as singular as it is sad. After all, we’ve been so close to dying plenty of times before; why couldn’t this be like the other times? I catch myself in denial sometimes, half expecting to wake to someone leaning on their horn outside because I’m late for a mission again. 

References

1. Paul Reid William’s Obituary

Care of the Gardner News

ATHOL — Paul Reid Williams, 44, of 88 Goddard St., passed away unexpectedly Wednesday evening, February 27, 2019 with his family by his side.

He was born in Gardner on February 14, 1975 and graduated from Gardner High School in 1993.

Paul was a mechanic and enjoyed working on cars. He was also always willing to help those in need. Prior to becoming a mechanic, he spent several years working as a machine operator at Atlantic Graphics Services Inc in Clinton, Mass.

Paul leaves behind a son, Michael Reid Williams, 7, of Athol; his father, Reid Williams of Athol; his mother, Tessa (Scott) Williams of Athol; his sister, Lisa (Williams) Thompson of Athol; two nieces, Maryssa (Thompson) Charbonneau and Isabell Thompson both of Athol; and a great niece, Nova Charbonneau. He also leaves behind several aunts, uncles and cousins as well.

Paul’s favorite pastimes include spending time with family and friends, fishing, camping, geocaching and spending as much time as he could making memories with his son.

A private celebration of life service will be held in Paul’s honor.

2. Mission Man’s profile, IRONFIST

Agent:  MISSION MAN
Combat Pilot/Special Operations Specialist

MISSION MAN  is known throughout the United States for his multiple exploits. He is the most seasoned veteran in the IRONFIST ranks and the only operative qualified to pilot all IRONFIST transports into any DZ, regardless of how hot or guarded it is.  The call for MISSION MAN is heard far and wide whenever IRONFIST needs to get in and get out fast.

Background:  The life of MISSION MAN to date can be summed up in the following phrase regarding his involvement in a recent collaboration of groups where he served as Core Operational Specialist in Insertion and Retrieval (COSIR): “…absolute pure intensity coupled with an insatiable desire for speed and performance… MISSION MAN has no qualms about pushing the threshold while on assignment…”

What else is there to be said about the living legend who is known solely by the words MISSION MAN?; an alliteration of words that conveys images of purely operational success in the minds of all fellow UE members.  MISSION MAN is perhaps single handedly responsible for causing most recent state, local, and federal government denials and cover-ups concerning UE exploits into forbidden areas.  Mission Man has every tool available in his repertoire to ensure that nothing goes awry or haywire while on assignment.

Activities: The sheer madness with which MISSION MAN  lives his life by can be characterized by his activities outside of IRONFIST.  Not content with standard delivery cars, MISSION MAN has become involved in the construction and racing of high performance street rods.  Shortly after his entry into this sport the mention of his name at any event would bring fear into the eyes of his competitors.  No one was willing to believe that he was able to draw such power from the cars he would drive, especially because he would modify them only one week prior to the event!.  One by one, multi thousand dollar cars fell to his dangerously skillful driving style.  Eventually enough money was earned allowing him to attend a course at Viper driving school, where he was soon expelled for spinning the tires off of the test vehicle, while driving at over 100 mph. Following this, MISSION MAN  moved toward the off-roading world.  During the initial phase he participated in the Camel Trophy and other motor events.  While serving in the Pike’s Peak hill climb MISSION MAN  became involved with IRONFIST.

Since his involvement with IRONFIST, fame has followed MISSION MAN  even further.  His incredible knowledge of all construction techniques (civil and mechanical) allow him to quickly assess a situation and act immediately.  His vast storehouse of material and specialized equipment is always a source of pride to all IRONFIST members.  The utility of MISSION MAN  is unmatched throughout the world of UE, and no individual to date has even come close to comparing.

Skills:
– Chief Combat Pilot/Operator
– COSIS
– Mechanical Analysis
– On-Site Interpretation
– Dangerous Situations

3. Paul’s Facebook page.

4. Mission Man @ 001.

Mission M’s exploits garner the attention of state law enforcement and the international arts scene, unable to resist or explain MM’s brand of intense intensity… as usual.

• Beal, Barney. 2001. “NSH Buildings Attract the Daring.” Daily Hampshire Gazette, August 2, 2001. https://northamptonstatehospital.org/2001/08/02/nsh-buildings-attract-the-daring/.