Vernon K.
So, then when Jake retired, I took over as the head of Hydraulics and Hydrology. We
even argued when they named the branch, should it be Hydraulics and Hydrology or
Hydrology and Hydraulics, which one came first.
Q ..
Which
came first?
A ..
Yes, which
came first, or what did the first
mean. Then it got even more
complicated for a while. General
[Lt. General Joseph
Chief of
Engineers,
decided that he wanted to put all the engineering under military
engineering. He didn't want to have two engineering divisions.
But Gianelli didn't want everything to go to military engineering because that was out of
his jurisdiction. He wanted the control over the hydrology people. So, in that question
there was a big battle. That is when I really had a lot of action going on.
General]
John Wall was Director of Civil Works. Lloyd
wanted to take the hydrology and
hydraulics with him over to military engineering [Directorate of Engineering and
Construction].
They kept asking me what I wanted, and what I thought was best. My central theme, and
I beat the drum as hard as I could and as often as I could, to keep it all together. Don't
split up the hydrology and put some of it in the Civil Works and put some of the hydraulic
design [in Engineering and Construction] because obviously some of the hydraulic design
was more related to engineering than it was [to] planning and obviously some of the
hydrology was more related to planning than it was to "hard engineering, so called. Like
Homer Willis] used to say, "hard and soft" engineering.
But, anyway, everyone who talked to me about it, or would listen to me rather than just
come and talk, anybody that would listen to me I'd say, "Hey, I don't care which way you
put it, whether you put it in Civil Works or put it in the military side. Just keep it all
together. Please, for God's sake, don't screw it all up by subdividing it up into different
parts. Well, not only that, part of the hydrology was directly related to the operations,
too, in the water control management.
So they could have split it up three ways. They'd have gotten nothing out of it. We
would have no power at all.
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