Engineer Memoirs
But it's funny. People have to get used to that. Very often people that worked with me
didn't believe that in the beginning. They couldn't believe that this guy meant this. Then
after six months, they believed.
You know, it produces results. But it's not the only formula. That's my approach.
Spend time, think through what you're going to do. Get people's views. Talk it over.
When you finally decide that that's it, that's it. Then you really try to do it that way.
When people come in and want to do it differently, say, "Listen, we talked about this
for three months. This is the way we're going to do it."
Q:
Did General Morris ask you to concentrate on any particular aspects of what the Corps
was doing?
A:
When I came up to be Deputy Chief of Engineers, he wrote an interesting memo which
I didn't pay too much attention to, frankly. It was all about the fact that I wasn't
supposed to interfere with the Director of Civil Works.
I told Jack, fine, but that I was the Deputy Chief. I've forgotten about how it was
worded, but it was all about how I was supposed to look after the military construction.
Anyway, I wasn't supposed to interfere with the Director of Civil Works.
That isn't what it said. But, of course, Chuck McGinnis and I were long-time
associates. He kept asking me, "What do I do now?" I don't mean that he didn't know
what to do, but he wanted my views of what to do.
You know, Morris had his views. But McGinnis never hesitated to consult me on what
I thought of these situations. And since I had been nursing these things for two years,
I had views.
Q:
Sure.
A:
I remember one of the things that came to fruition had to do with the controversy over
the water supply on the Potomac. There had been a real problem with low water. I had
written a letter to the editor of the Washington Post about the sharing of water between
Maryland and Virginia and the District. Actually, Maryland and Virginia both wanted
all the water, and the hell with the District.
We had a black Secretary of the Army and the District had a black mayor. I was trying
to get the political groups in the District to stick up for their water. My feeling was that
if they would get on board, neither the Maryland nor the Virginia jurisdiction would
stand a chance. That finally came to pass.
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