Francis Slichter and Wendell Johnson were both real top-notch guys anyway. You just
walk into a room and those guys stand out. You don't even have to hear them talk or
that guy must be pretty distinguished.
anything. You just look at them and say,
Q ..
What were they like? You probably knew them fairly well.
A ..
They just had an air about them that they were very confident in what they did. They
didn't act like they were the least bit uncertain about what they should do. They seemed
always to present an air of confidence. When you talked to them, they would listen to you
very closely. If they agreed with you, they would tell you. If they didn't, they'd tell you
why they didn't agree with you.
They were very supportive of their staff. I've never had anybody that I know of that ever
made serious complaints about either one of them. None of the branch chiefs ever. They
always had a real great respect for them. They used to call them "Mister" all the time,
even though they knew them real good, and most of them did, and they still said Mr.
Slichter or Mr. Johnson. They didn't say Wendell or Francis. It was just the way they
did business maybe in those days.
Q ..
Well, I know many of the people that I've talked to, including a lot of their top generals,
division engineers and district engineers from Mm--people like Tom Hayes--always had
a great respect for them.
A ..
I think they were respected all through the Corps and world-wide for their [work].
Q ..
Yes, they were more than just engineers in the Corps of Engineers. They were certainly
recognized for their skills.
A
Yes, another thing about it that kind of impressed me being a civilian working for the
Corps was these fellows. When they walked into a room with a bunch of generals, they
didn't appear like they were subservient to these generals. They acted like they were the
top guys, just as high or higher than the generals were, you know. Generals didn't bother
them at all. They'd talk back to generals just as quick as anybody else. It didn't seem to
bother them at all, a four-star general or a three-star general or whatever it was. They
were just as comfortable telling them what they should do.
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