Ernest Graves
The position I got as a senior fellow at the Georgetown University Center for Strategic
and International Studies also came about because I was associated with some people
there.
You have to be realistic. Few, if any, jobs are won on pure merit, particularly as you get
to be more senior. You are chosen to do something because you're a known quantity.
In fact, one would be very foolish to interview 50 people and not learn more about
them than that. So most senior jobs in this world are gained through contacts.
If a firm is buying something, you may have a competition to try to be objective and
select the best. The thing that causes ethical problems is where a prior association is
used to gain favored treatment in some procurement activity where ostensibly the
procurement is on an objective, competitive basis. That's where the ethical issue arises.
Q:
You retired in 1981? Why at that time?
A:
My time was up. I had already been extended twice in the job. Normally, the Army's
policy was that you retired with 35 years' service. But I had been extended first for a
year and then for a little bit more than another year. I stayed on long enough to help the
new administration get started. I had done my 37 years and it was my time to retire.
Q:
What do you look back on with the greatest satisfaction? Thirty-seven years is a long
time, and maybe there is no one thing.
A:
It's not so much a matter of satisfaction. I think I was extraordinarily fortunate to get
the opportunities I did in the Army. I certainly didn't visualize at any point in my career
that I would have as many different jobs to do, and every one of them was interesting.
I think it's incredible. I don't think I ever really had a bad assignment. It's perfectly true
that in those early years when I was in the 1282d Engineer Combat Battalion, it wasn't
a very good job. It was a good experience, because I learned a lot from it.
But after that, I just had one terrific job after another. I had all kinds of opportunities
to do things. I was very fortunate in having a lot of good bosses. There were a few
along the way that I didn't hit it off with. But I learned that you do have to get along
with your boss, no matter who he is. If you approach it with that frame of mind, you
don't get worked up if your boss doesn't measure up to your ideals. You just accept
the fact that that's life.
It would be hard to say that any one job was that much better than the others. I had one
disappointment. But that's putting it too strongly. I just didn't get to stay in most of the
jobs as long as I would have liked to.
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