Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
management. Since about nine tenths of the work in floodplain managementwas H&H--
was doing H&H studies and then writing a report on floodplain information, he could have
probably taken over that responsibility very easy. But he just didn't seem to want it. He
was very reluctant about it. He would say, "Well, that's a different program than our
traditional H&H. He wasn't all that enthusiastic about getting involved in it.
I know I kind of got assigned to work with the people in floodplain management.
Whatever coordination was done, Al didn't even seem to want to be involved in it much.
So that I did pretty nearly the coordination. I went to some of the first meetings they
had out in the field and so forth. I'd review the reports and make comments on the reports
prepared by the field offices as part of my job.
But headquarters didn't really have much of a role in it because the districts did their own
thing, really, in the floodplain information studies. They didn't have to be approved by
headquarters, except the first few that came out to find out if they were doing things
consistently.
James
Goddard
But when they got [James E.] Goddard on special assignment from TVA [Tennessee
Valley Authority]--1 don't recall whether he had just came over from TVA or whether he
had resigned or whether he had already left TVA then. But he came to the Corps and he
was going to make floodplain management the theme for the Corps. He was going to
convert the Corps from a structural agency to non-structural floodplain management
activities, or at least that seemed to be his goal.
He would come over and argue with Al about things that needed to be done. Since I was
sitting very close to Al, I heard all these conversations that went back and forth. Goddard
would talk for awhile and Al would be sitting there, and he wouldn't be saying anything--
they were both real strong, aggressive type people. One of them would talk for awhile
and the other one wouldn't hear a word he said--it was pretty obvious because as soon as
he got a chance to say something, he'd take off and go in just the opposite direction.
But, obviously they didn't hear what the other one said. They both had their pitch that
they were going to make, and they weren't listening at all so that they never did seem to
get together on anything. They were always battling about what probably should be done
and how it should be done.
To give you an example, they hired this guy, Goddard, to do a job in the Corps, but they
didn't put much supervision on him. They let hirn go ahead and do his own thing and he
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