Well, as far as I
it's been okay. I think SWD [Southwestern Division] are the ones
A
that did it more than anybody. But some districts don't maintain much of an H&H staff,
,
they just go to HEC or the Waterways Experiment Station to get their help--the in-house
Corps help and then use consultants. So it's a real mixed bag, I guess, the way the various
districts handle their cluota of people, how they use them and how they feel they have the
most demand for them.
Two Types of Personnel in the Corps: Lew
and Al
Q ..
We were talking the other day, too, about the people you had worked with. One of the
people that I hadn't talked about, but I guess I should, is Lew
, who was in a
number of different positions.
A
Well, I guess one of those things you could say from my experience with the top people
in the Corps--there are kind of two types. One is a person who is kind of concerned about
his own prominence. He's trying to build up his own stature by writing professional
papers, by being active in professional societies, and getting his name on his papers as
much as he can, trying to do things he can to draw attention to his own capabilities. He
spends a lot of time doing that and not as much time working for the agency.
Then there's the other type who is real--they're all real good--but I mean this other type
who doesn't really give a hoot about being prominent and well recognized and all that sort
of thing. He just does a hell of a good job where he is, Al
was one of the latter
type. He knocked himself out trying to do the very best he could for the Corps of
Engineers. Working nights and spending a lot of extra hours and getting the best help he
could. He didn't worry about his own stature too much. He just worried about getting
the job done.
But, I don't know why he was that way, other than maybe he felt that being Chief of
Hydrology and Hydraulics, he wasn't really looking for a different job, he was satisfied
where he was. But other people that try to be recognized, not only do they like the idea
of being recognized as a top authority but it helps them get higher paid positions.
But each of these type of people benefit the Corps, you know. It benefits the Corps that
one of their people is recognized throughout the world as being the top expert in some
particular discipline. How they happen to get that recognition may have taken some of
their
from their
work to get that recognition, but still it benefits the Corps to
a great deal. So it's kind of hard to judge one person, which one does the most good for
the Corps in the long run. But they both do a lot for the Corps.
Previous Page
