Engineer Memoirs
After receiving his degree from MIT in September 1951, Major Graves was assigned to the
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe, in Paris, France. For the first year in SHAPE
he was the assistant executive officer in the Office of the Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff.
Then from 1952 to 1954 he was assigned as a staff engineer in the Airfield Construction
Section, Engineer Branch, Logistics Division, working on the NATO infrastructure program.
One of his first jobs in infrastructure was preparing the NATO airfield standards following the
Lisbon meeting of the North Atlantic Council. The standards were a detailed list of operational
facilities that had to be provided at each NATO airfield for it to qualify for allied cost sharing.
After attending the Engineer Officer Advanced Course in 19541955, Major Graves was
assigned for two years as Chief, Training Section, Nuclear Power Branch, U.S. Army Engineer
Research and Development Laboratories, at Fort Belvoir. The Army constructed a nuclear
power plant at Fort Belvoir, and Graves was in charge of putting together the crew for the
plant and organizing the whole training program, both graduate schooling for officers and
technical training for crews.
Major Graves attended the Command and General Staff College in 19571958, then was
assigned to command the 44th Engineer Construction Battalion in Bup Yong, Korea. During
his year in command the battalion built a large storage area for Honest John missiles at Osan,
did asphalt paving in the area of the 7th Infantry Division just south of the DMZ, and began
construction of the depot complex at Waegwan.
In 1959 Graves was assigned as a research associate in the Plowshare Program at the
Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, California. His mission was to learn about the
peaceful use of nuclear explosives to perform excavation, possibly in the construction of a sea-
level canal across the Isthmus of Panama. Most of his assignments for the next seven years
were spent working on engineering and policy issues affecting the Panama Canal.
In spring 1961 Lieutenant Colonel Graves was reassigned as the Deputy District Engineer
in the Los Angeles District of the Corps of Engineers. However, that fall he was ordered on
temporary duty to Washington to serve as a technical consultant to the Inter-Agency Study
Group on Panama Canal Policy and Relations with Panama. With the study group's
recommendations approved in a national security action memorandum signed by President
Kennedy in spring 1962, Graves was ordered back to Livermore to establish the U.S. Army
Engineer Nuclear Cratering Group. He served as the group's director from 1962 to 1964,
leading the Corps of Engineers portion of the research program aimed at determining the
feasibility of using nuclear excavation to dig a sea-level canal.
After attending the Army War College at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania, in 19641965,
Graves became a staff officer in the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of the Army
(International Affairs) in the Pentagon. In February 1967 he was appointed Executive to the
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