He looks like Roger Ramjet.
Or GI Joe, or Johnny Canuck, or any other spit ‘n’ polish hero of your youth.
Yet he stands accused of one of the most heinous crimes in our nation’s history.
So we will learn much about this guy as justice runs its course.
But he is no mysterious stranger. Col. Russell Williams, 46, is a highly accomplished and decorated soldier.
I mean, look at him. If there is a profile of an accused sex predator and murderer, that’s not it.
On Cosy Cove Lane, in Tweed, where he lived with wife Mary Elizabeth Harriman, he was known as a private man.
But his world and his career have been high profile far beyond the borders of bucolic Tweed.
Since taking command of CFB Trenton last July, he has saluted each of our fallen from Afghanistan as they arrived home. He welcomed the Olympic torch.
He piloted the forces’ Challenger jets carrying the prime minister, the Governor General, and other VIPs during the 1990s.
Before that, he flew electronic warfare and coast patrols out of 434 Squadron in Shearwater, N.S.
Before that, he was an instructor and flew in the last formation of a demo team called Musket Gold.
For six months in 2005-06, he commanded mysterious Camp Mirage, in the Arabian Gulf, a support base for the Afghanistan mission.
Officially, the forces barely admit Camp Mirage’s existence, but it’s near Dubai.
Remarkably, Williams’ glowing bio remained on the military’s website hours after he’d been charged with two murders, and with two sex assaults in Tweed in which the victims were photographed during their ordeals.
“A keen photographer, fisherman and runner,” the bio says, adding the commander and his wife are avid golfers.
Col. Williams’ stellar resume includes a master’s degree from the Royal Military College in Kingston. He oversaw Globemaster and Hercules aircraft purchases.
And his name is attached to charity and relief missions near and far.
When he took command, he told Trenton politicians, “I look forward to meeting many more members of the community and strengthening that relationship,” the Northumberland News reported.
So there was the colonel last Oct. 2 on the front page of The Contact, the base newspaper, with a cheque for his Wing Commander’s Annual Charity Golf Tournament.
The paper reported his tee shot on No. 1 landed 15 feet from the pin, and his tourney raised $10,000.
The colonel championed Operation Santa Claus at a Brighton grocery store, collecting gifts for overseas soldiers.
The Contact reported Williams got such a package at Camp Mirage and was especially moved by the “little notes from children.”
Trenton is a base for our relief ops in Haiti, so the colonel is a fixture in press photos of supplies headed to that quake ravaged country.
And when Jessica Lloyd, 27, of Belleville, was reported missing, CFB Trenton and its commander were quick to offer help.
The base rescue helicopter joined the search on Jan. 30.
