Engineer Memoirs
I don't know what it was. I just dreamed up what I wanted to do and did it. I was a
major at the time, and I just figured it out and was able to do it. The thing that is
amazing is the amount of cooperation I got from people.
Q:
Do you suppose this consensus we have been talking about has something to do with
that nobody questioned--
A:
I think that was an important factor. They knew that we were getting into nuclear
power, and they didn't question the priority. It was interesting. I learned something
important. There were all these Army regulations, and I learned that Army regulations
are written by people. I found out who had written the regulation and asked, "How do
you do it differently?"
One of them said, "We can put out a change to the regulation." And they did.
Q:
It is still amazing.
A:
It is amazing when I think back on it. The amount we got done in a relatively short
time. I had an Air Force captain and a Navy lieutenant working for me on my staff.
Then I picked [Major General William R.] Bill Wray, who later became the Deputy
Chief of Engineers, to be the head of the crew. He was in the advanced course at Fort
Belvoir, and at the time he was the top man in that advanced course. In terms of
average, he was doing the best of anybody. We just yanked him out of it. His wife was
about to have a baby, and I sent him off to school at Penn State for three months to get
smart about nuclear power.
That was a separate officer course. We sent two or three officers up to Penn State.
They were going to be the officers in charge on the crew. The warrant officers and the
enlisted men were sent to the University of Virginia.
Q:
I have seen the organization chart for a crew in the mid-1960s and it was a little bit
smaller than 18. I guess it was getting down to about ten people. But wasn't that a
pretty big job for a captain to be in charge of one of these plants?
A:
It might have been, but I think in that Army we thought majors and captains could do
a lot. I guess it was a big job.
Q:
How did you choose these people? I remember how General Groves chose you.
A:
Well, two things--academic ability and their military records. From their military
records, we could tell whether they could get something done. And academic ability.
We wanted people that were smart enough that they could pick this stuff up quickly.
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