Ernest Graves
We all wanted to have these opportunities, although I never did command a company
as things developed. But we didn't think it took very long to learn how to be a platoon
leader or to learn how to be a company commander. We wanted to be able to do all the
other fascinating things as well. We all thought we would.
In many cases the nuclear assignments substituted for being a resident engineer on some
civil works project.
Q:
That's what it turned out to be.
A:
In my case, and I think in the case of quite a few other people in this same program.
Q:
Does getting an advanced degree like this put you in a position where others look at
you as sort of an egghead or some kind of an eccentric?
Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers, Europe, 19511954
A:
I don't believe so. Some have done this, but I think that is a question of your
personality.
Q:
When you finished at MIT, you went to Europe again?
Yes. This was a little bit of a non sequitur, but NATO [North Atlantic Treaty
A:
Organization] had become very prominent.
I received word that they were planning to send me back to Sandia Base, where I had
been before going to school. When I investigated what was going on there, I found out
that, whereas I had been the S3 of this engineer battalion when I left, that job was now
filled by a lieutenant colonel, and I would be put in at the bottom layer. All the jobs that
we had held as majors and captains in the early days were now being held by colonels
and lieutenant colonels. I was not going to learn anything that way. There was no future
in that.
[Lieutenant] General [Thomas B.] Larkin was the Army G4 [deputy chief of staff,
logistics]. He was another great friend of my father's. I went to see him and said that
I would like an opportunity to go to SHAPE [Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers,
Europe] if that could be arranged. He sent an inquiry to SHAPE and got me put on
orders to SHAPE.
There was grousing that this had nothing to do with my nuclear training, which was
true. But when the top guys decided they wanted to do it, the training didn't matter.
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