A ..
Okay, 1970. Okay, well, he was Chief of Engineering a couple of years after that or a
year or so after that. So he couldn't of been Chief when it was down there, I don't think.
They had a tough time finding somebody that would come in at that time. They couldn't
get some of the division--people who were Chiefs of Engineering in division offices didn't
want to come into Washington.
At that time they weren't putting as much pressure on them to do what the Chief wanted
them to do. Since then they've been a little more forceful in getting people from field
offices to do what they want them to do. They tell them, "Well, you're going to move
into Washington. It wasn't a question of whether you wanted to or not necessarily.
Q ..
That's all part of professional development or engineering career program, isn't it?
A ..
Well, some of them, they just pretty well twisted their arm and said, "Hey, either you
come in here or you're in trouble as far as working for the Corps of Engineers is
concerned.
Q ..
Then go work for somebody else.
A
I don't know that they actually told them that they'd fire them, but they intimated that they
might as well forget about their careers in the Corps of Engineers.
Homer
Q ..
Well, that's a relatively strong statement. How about Homer Willis?
A
Well, Homer Willis--he was Wendell Johnson`s assistant. Homer was in the project
development branch when he was in Washington. He had some hydrology experience
when he was in the field, but he didn't really have much real technical engineering
background. He was more of the project management type thing than processing reports
and that kind of stuff before he got to be Assistant Chief of Engineering for Wendell.
Wendell didn't use him as an Assistant Chief. When he was gone, Homer didn't get to
make decisions. There weren't any decisions made when Wendell was gone. Wendell
would make them when he got back. So Homer passed the paper, but he didn't make the
major technical engineering decisions at that time.
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