Water Resources: Hydraulics and Hydrology
In 1939, Dick Eaton was Chief of the Navigation Section, Los Angeles District. The
lower ends of the rivers that ran into the Pacific Ocean or a bay were navigable. Also,
many of the bays had navigable harbors. Many of the navigation channels
harbors had
to be deepened and maintained by dredging. In about 1941, Dick got promoted to the
division office. He was put in charge of harbor design and maintenance for the entire
South Pacific Division, all up and down the Pacific Coast. Several years later he came to
Washington, and he was technical director of the Beach Erosion Board [BEB], and later,
the Coastal Engineering Research Center [CERC] .
So he was one of the coastal engineers that you later dealt with. During the war, then,
you just kept on working on those flood control projects?
Yes. We kept on designing them, but we didn't get money to do any construction. We
were told by higher authority that the flood control projects had to be designed and put on
the shelf because when the war ends there will be a lot of people, including soldiers,
looking for work, and there will be plenty of money to construct these projects. For two
or three years, that's all we did. Then after the war ended, it was about another year
before construction started again.
What was the Los Angeles District like during the war years?
There was a military division in the district. Jack Tyler was in charge of the military
work. They designed and managed the military construction of several military airfields
and camps. I wasn't involved in that.
That must have been a pretty large district?
Yes, it was one of the largest, if not the largest, Corps district. I remember the District
Engineer when I first came there. He went to Honolulu and became District Engineer
there. After the war started, he came back to the Los Angeles District to recruit engineers
to go over to England to help prepare for the invasion of Europe. He spent several days
in the Los Angeles District, and then went to other districts for the same purpose.
Somehow or another, he got my name, and I was called to go and talk with him. This was
in 1942.
He explained that he was enlisting Corps engineering employees, on a voluntary basis
join him, and form a battalion of engineers in London to help in the crossing of the
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