Then SWD, Terry Coombs, who is now, I think he's Chief of Engineering in Fort Worth
or he has a different job in Fort Worth now. Then as I mentioned, Margaret Petersen
would be a good one. Those are some of the people that have come to mind.
Q ..
Okay. Well, I'll pass those names on and see what they can--if they can find them, which
they usually can.
A
Well, usually what happens if you go to the office that they worked in, somebody there
usually has an address on them or has kept up with what they're doing.
Career
in the
Field
Q ..
We'll try to track some of them down.
A
One of the things that we probably talked a little bit about last time was a career ladder in
H&H. In the early days, it was tough to really keep people in the H&H discipline because
the career ladder didn't look that good. About the best you could do was to be Chief of
Hydrology or Hydrology and Hydraulics, or whatever they called the particular office in
the district or in a division.
The highest grade anywhere in the country was a GS-14. There were a few
in the
research business but not in the day-to-day work. A lot of the younger fellows, after they
had worked in hydrology and hydraulics for a little while, they would move over into
another discipline where they would have a better opportunity to get ahead.
Someone in hydraulic design might get over into structures, or someone in hydrology may
move to planning so they would have a chance to get ahead. They knew if they stayed in
hydrology and hydraulics, they would be typed and there was no opportunity for
advancement.
Now there were a few people that got to be Chiefs of Engineering or Chiefs of Planning
when they started off in hydrology. But it got so they were few and far between. Even
in later years in my career, why it got so that in Engineering they just didn't feel that the
people working in hydraulics and hydrology were as qualified for being Chief of
Engineering as somebody that worked in geotech [geotechnical] or structures.
As a matter of fact, most Chiefs of Engineering felt that the Chief of Engineering should
come from a Structures Branch. It's pure and simple, if you come in from any other role,
why then you didn't belong as Chief of Engineering.
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