Engineer Memoirs
Maybe there were district engineers out there that hated to lose their military
construction. They were probably prompted by their civilian staff as to all the reasons
they should not do this. But I think the in the minds of the top leadership--Clarke,
Dunn, Raymond, Graves--there was no question that this had to be done.
Q:
I think you're right. In civil works, with the Environmental Advisory Board, I don't
think civilian administrators would have been as successful in imposing such a change
on a bureaucracy.
A:
Clarke was one of the most clear-headed and far-sighted Chiefs we've had in a long
time. He saw very clearly the things that had to be done to keep the Corps abreast of
the times.
I want to mention one other thing about this S&A rate. To an extent, this was driven
by the Air Force because we were engaged--and Raymond was very active in this--we
were engaged in an intense debate with the Air Force as to the extent to which the
Corps should do Air Force work. One of the arguments of the Air Force--that they
should be allowed to do more of their own work and that the Corps should do less of
their construction for them--was that our overhead rates were excessive, that we were
charging them a lot of money, and that we were duplicating the work of the Air Force
civil engineers.
In connection with their maintenance function, they had their civil engineers on every
air base. It would be more efficient for them if they were allowed to contract for this
construction, rather than using the Corps. Since we had a high S&A rate, it was easy
for them to offer estimates that, in fact, it would be cheaper if we were no longer doing
this.
But the people in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, generally, did not want to
foster the development of a third construction service. They already had at that time the
Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Yards and Docks. They didn't feel they needed
to build the Air Force up to the status of a third construction effort.
So they were on the side of the Corps, but every year there was a big adjudication as
to the division of the work. The Air Force was allowed to do a certain amount itself.
They would argue because of urgency or special requirements as to the projects that
they sought. Then this would all be decided.
In order to get the Corps into a better posture for this, it was absolutely essential to get
the S&A rate down.
Q:
This controversy with the Air Force sounds very familiar.
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