Vernon
worked in hydrology. But because civil service didn't have any other designation for it
except they did have a hydrologist, which wasn't in the engineering side of the house.
Q ..
Well, the pure science type.
A ..
Nobody wanted to be labeled as hydrologist because they didn't get as high a pay as the
engineers did. Nobody wanted to be a scientist; they wanted to be an engineer. That was
in the early days, too, before other disciplines got more recognition, like the economists
do get a lot more recognition than they used to. Biologists get a lot more recognition and
people working in other environmental aspects.
Q ..
Wasn't one of the significant aspects about the whole planning division that it now has
many more social and behavioral scientists than it has just engineers?
A ..
Yes, they got away from the engineers running the Corps. The Corps at one time, if you
weren't an engineer, why you just might as well get out of the Corps as far as going up
the career ladder. You were limited in how far you could go. You maybe could get to
at the maximum if you were a social scientist or something like that. The
a
planning side of the house gave opportunities for a lot of those other disciplines.
was Chief of Planning at one time,
The economists got to be top dogs in planning.
and he was an economist. I don't know some of the others who managed to get up there.
The Corps of Engineers is not necessarily the Corps of Engineers anymore, but the Corps
of a lot of disciplines, not just engineers.
Q ..
Engineers, planners, social scientists.
A ..
Most anything you could think of.
Q ..
In the H&H Branch, which we were talking about, when hydrologic engineers come to the
forefront, were there people like Cochran involved in getting changes in the whole civil
service system?
Well, they served on committees. Civil service would have committees to decide how to
A
name various jobs and what kind of names they should have and some of those people
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