A
I don't think WES ever got too interested in hydrology early on. They were kept
pretty busy taking care of the straight hydraulics. I think the model probably came
as close to hydrology as they got up to that time. I can't think of any particular
hydrology experiment that would have been assigned to them to do like they did on
the Mississippi Basin Model. Sedimentation is a part of hydrology, and WES did
a lot of work in that field.
Q ..
Are there any other things about your experience with hydrology in the Chief's
Office that you want to touch on? I've got some more questions here for you, but
I thought since we were talking about that.
A
Well, I should have been thinking about that in advance, I guess. Rather difficult
to come up with anything. I was very fortunate in that I got to participate in all of
these international and outside activities that gave me opportunities of traveling and
meeting people, and things which I would not have had if I had not represented the
office on so many different activities. So that was very fortunate. I suppose that
was sort of a natural evolution in that I was Mr. Hathaway's backup; and, as a result
of that, I gradually got into activities like the Hydrology Commission of the WMO,
the International Hydrologic Decade, and the St. Lawrence River activities.
Q ..
But you were encouraged by the Corps' leadership to be involved in those
professional-type activities, besides the point that in some cases there was actually
a Corps position involved. You were encouraged to participate in the International
Union of Geodesy and Geophysics?
A ..
Yes. Yes, you saw those papers that I wrote.
Directors of Civil Works and Assistant Chiefs
Q ..
I want to ask you some questions about some of these engineer officers who you
may have worked with in your time there. We talked some about the Chief of
Engineers, but you said you didn't see much of them or you weren't at the level that
you saw them. So I'm going to ask you about people who were the Directors of
Civil Works.
A ..
Yes, the Assistant Chief of Engineers.