Engineer Memoirs
A:
I think that we were involved before that, but when Brown made that trip in
JanuaryFebruary of 1979 I went on the trip with him, and we worked on it.
During the first work on the airfield study with [Brigadier General] Paul [T.] Hartung
and some others, I was involved not exactly as Director of DSAA, but because I was
an engineer officer, and David McGiffert wanted me to tell him whether they had it
right or not.
I knew what they were up to and I read some of the stuff they produced. I also thought
about the mechanics of this and talked to McGiffert about how the whole thing might
be done. At that stage, of course, they were looking at quite a few different sites, trying
to see what they would cost, and also what the impact was going to be on the time
required to relocate the fighter squadrons.
The site that the Israelis liked best, if I remember correctly, was one where it was going
to take more time to develop the site fully. The site had more ultimate potential in terms
of space for dispersal of aircraft and so forth. But the topography was such that it was
going to take longer to develop all this. That site was later not picked, although the
Israelis have gone ahead and developed that field on their own.
Q:
That's usually called the third air base site. That's where all the Bedouin land
problems--
A:
The Bedouin land was one of the big problems there.
Q:
You led a negotiating team over there in March of '79. Of course, by that time, it was
pretty much decided that the U.S. government was going to provide two bases.
A:
That's correct. The basic agreement to do this had been reached at Camp David. The
amount of money had been set--that we would grant 0 million.
The concept had been proposed by Weizman and agreed to. It would be conducted as
an offshore operation, isolated from the Israeli economy to the maximum extent
possible because, at the time of Camp David, the Israeli economy was humming along
pretty well and the demand for everything was near the limits of the economy.
They were very concerned that a project of this size, superimposed on top of the
construction industry, as it was then engaged, would have a very heavy inflationary
effect, and also would run into all kinds of shortages which would delay it. When I went
over, the object was to make an agreement which would establish this offshore regime.
Up to that point, the leader of the activities had been Paul Hartung. My involvement in
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