Jacob H. Douma
do about that. He answered, "We've got a lot of good dam designers in the Corps. What
we'll do is get a group together from our districts, our most talented people, and we'll
send them to Nashville for however long it takes to design the dam, probably about a
year. So Roosevelt said, "Fine. Do it that way.
It wasn't very long before
Chief of the Engineering Division, Omaha District,
was assigned the job of heading up the team. He decided the kind of engineers that were
needed hydraulic, structural, concrete, and electrical engineers. He contacted several
divisions and districts, including the Los Angeles District, asking for volunteers to fill the
positions on the team. I applied for the hydraulic engineer job and got it.
I was on loan to the Nashville District and was paid per diem by the Los Angeles District.
I remember the per diem was .00 a day. [Laughter] Holy Moses! .00 a day! I was
there for about three months. My wife and I were married about a year, and she enjoyed
going there. We had a room in a boarding house, which didn't cost us very much. We
saved enough money to buy a new car. First car we owned.
Were there any peculiarities about Wolf Creek that you remember?
A:
It's design was quite simple, much like
Dam. It was a concrete dam, with a
center overflow spillway, small sluice outlets, and a stilling basin, which did not require
model testing.
Just went in and designed it?
A:
My experience with the
Dam and several others made it easy to design Wolf
Creek Dam.
You were out there for several months then?
A:
I was there about three months. My wife's sister and brother were still living in
Washington, D.C., where she lived for a number of years. We went to Washington and
visited there awhile, and it was about four months before we got back to Los Angeles. I
went back to work on my previous job in the Los Angeles District.
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