Engineer Memoirs
McIntosh on the 13th of July, the temperature approaching 100 degrees, with no air
conditioning, to a place that appeared to me to be the end of the earth-south Texas
along the Mexican border! That was the beginning of my career in the Corps of
Engineers.
You got yourselfto Laredo, Texas, but there are just a couple of things I was going to
ask you before we went on. When you made this decision to go into the Corps of
Engineers by professional examination, having been offered and turned down a job, did
you have any idea about how long you might be in the military at that time? As it turned
out, it was your life-long career.
Having decided to go into the Corps and to accept the appointment as offered, there
A:
was never any intent in my mind for other than a full career. I can remember that shortly
after being in the Corps I saw published an annual list of
of the Corps and their
assignments. And I believe that my order of rank on that list was somewhere in the
order of 710 or 720. Having been number 15 in 36 of those who came in on July
I had a few people junior to me, but very few. At the time, they also used to publish
your anticipated retirement date based upon retirement at age 64. I remember very
vividly my retirement date was forecast to be August 1980, which seemed to me to be
in the
distant
No, there was never any intent on my part to have other than
a lifetime career, and I anticipated
that I would serve until my retirement
date.
Did your wife-to-be have misgivings?
Was she from a military family or was
this going to be a new thing for her to
be the wife of an
She had no relationship or experience
with the military whatsoever. Her
father was an engineer with the
International Harvester Company. At
the time we were married, he was
chief inspector of the Indianapolis
works, where they made truck
engines. She had no background in
the military, but took the position
that,
what I wanted to do, she
was willing to go along. I might add
that when it did come time to retire
she was more reluctant to leave than
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