Ernest Graves
I arranged to call on General Wheeler. I took along a couple of the other people who
were in the program. We explained to him why we thought we should stick with it.
That was a foregone conclusion. Wheeler had known me ever since I was a little boy.
He said immediately, "The program will continue."
The subject of my getting a Ph.D. came up about a year later. In that case, I asked my
father to speak to General Pick, which he did, and Pick approved it.
General Pick might have approved it anyway, although the recommendation from the
personnel people had been against it, because they didn't believe that it took any
education to be an engineer officer. There is a tendency among personnel assignment
officers to think: if people are at school all the time, who is going to do the work?
Q:
Who is minding the store? Sure. But being chosen for that Manhattan project is a very
important thing for you.
A:
That determined my career. Groves picked a lot of bright, capable people. One of the
most outstanding was [Brigadier General Robert E.] Bob Mathe, who, of course, later
became a district commissioner. Many on the list were very successful. [John H.] Jack
Cushman out of my West Point class became a three-star general. So did Ken Cooper.
Not all of them stuck with it. Not all of them advanced. Some of them resigned and
stayed out there. It was a mixed bag. But that was a very talented group.
Q:
And obviously a very stimulating one to be part of.
A:
Yes. That's right.
Q:
You know, one of the questions I was going to ask you when we got to 1948 and you
are going back to school was, you know, so far you have been four years on active
duty. You have met a lot of older officers, and who were important to you as role
models. But I don't think I need to ask that question any more, because apparently you
have been associated with these people since you were a child.
A:
Right. I did mention Bob MacDonnell was my boss in Japan. I had a great deal of
respect for him. There was also a man named Ellsworth, who was a colonel at the time.
I don't think he stayed on in the Army. He was called "Memo Bill" because he was
always writing notes. He was MacDonnell's predecessor in the Eighth Army
Construction Division. I learned a lot from him about work standards.
MacDonnell's immediate superior, the Eighth Army engineer, was [Colonel Reginald
L.] Reggie "Goddamn" Dean--a nickname he got from his frequent use of the
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