Edward L. Rowny
A ..
Yes, several of my West Point classmates were there. I remember one classmate
in particular, Robert "Woody" Garrett. I also made lasting friendships with
officers of other services, such as Captain Cy Young who got to command a
nuclear submarine. He was godfather to my son John who was born at Norfolk.
I made another friend, an Air Force officer, Vincent Rethman, from whom I
learned a great deal about Air Force doctrine. All in all, it was an enjoyable time;
the six months passed quickly.
Q ..
After that school assignment you were sent to Paris, first as deputy secretary of the
general staff to General Gruenther and later secretary of the general staff to
General Norstad. What did those jobs involve?
A ..
I went from a low-key assignment at Norfolk to a very high-key job in Paris.
General Gruenther was highly demanding. He expected his staff to work at white
heat 12 hours a day. I was motivated to work hard at this job because General
Gruenther looked to the secretary of the general staff to run the entire staff. He
used his chief of staff, the usual person to run the staff, as a second deputy.
Most of the officers who had been Gruenther's secretaries of the general staff either
suffered nervous breakdowns or had heart attacks. Because General Gruenther was
highly demanding, it was a stressful operation. I was at first deputy to Colonel
[later general] Jerry Folda. When I joined him he was close to burnout.
Q ..
Did you become the secretary of the general staff to General Gruenther?
Yes, after a year as his deputy I took over from Folda and became the secretary
A
of the general staff to General Gruenther. Six months later General Norstad
became SACEUR. I stayed on with him as his secretary of the general staff.
Secretary of the Staff, Supreme Headquarters, Allied Powers
Q ..
Could you tell me what you consider as high points of your assignment in France
with SHAPE [Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe]?
Some of the high points were procedural and others were substantive.
A
On the procedural side, we brought the first Germans into SHAPE. I made the
original contacts with the German government, selected two officers to come to the
staff and decided where to assign them. We put one in the operations directorate
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