Ernest Graves
A:
Yes. I think this applies to the engineers a lot--not necessarily us, in particular. You
go out to district jobs. You go out to the various jobs, and there's not a large Army
community. And generally, you do not live on a post.
Q:
That's right. But when you came back from France, you did come back to Fort Belvoir.
A:
We went to Belvoir. Ernie was a student, and then we stayed two more years when he
worked in the nuclear power program.
Q:
What did you think about that environment? Did you enjoy living in that environment?
A:
Oh, very much. Oh, yes.
Q:
Did you have quarters on the post?
A:
Yes.
Q:
Were you beginning then to think about--I remember Barbara Tuchman's biography
of [General Joseph] Joe Stilwell--how early in his career, he saw Monterey, California,
and he decided this was the place where he was going to live. But, of course, he did not
live very long after he retired. But that's where he wanted to go early on. Were you
thinking about where you were wanting to live at that point?
A:
No. I really and truly don't remember that we ever discussed where we would live,
because we both were sure we'd live in Washington. We simply never discussed it. It
just happened.
Q:
Where did you live when your husband went to Korea? Was it 1958?
A:
Yes.
Q:
That was his first unaccompanied tour after you were married.
A:
Yes, that's right. And I came back to this area. My parents, by this time, had moved to
Cleveland, Ohio. I had no interest in living in Cleveland, and they had each other. My
mother-in-law, of course, was widowed. I felt that I should be near her.
We tried to find a house for me and the children in Annapolis. We had one, but the lady
backed out at the last moment. So we decided that I would come here to be near
Ernie's mother and because there were so many West Point classmates.
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