Engineer Memoirs
Q ..
And it was your first civil assignment?
A ..
That's right.
Q ..
There were a lot of changes all at once.
A ..
And then en route, I was promoted to colonel. In retrospect, this upcoming promotion
may well have caused the assignment change.
.
Q.
And when you got to Vicksburg and became the director of the experiment station,
what things -were going on? I've looked at the statement that you made as part of the
first history of the Waterways Experiment Station.
A
There are several passages in the history that probably quote me. One had to do with
the Eisenhower-directed reduction in force shortly after I got there. We had to reduce
strength by about 25 percent. This was a traumatic experience because there really
wasn't any place else for these people to find work. The government was the biggest
employer in Vicksburg. It was drastic, but we did all we could to find places for people.
We were fairly successful and survived the experience.
Q ..
During the next several years was there a reversal? In other words, did you build the
strength back up?
A
No. Possibly a little bit but not really very much. Their expansion came after I left.
There were a couple of other things of less significance. We built a new headquarters
building. This had been planned and started before I arrived. I would have made some
changes, but it was too far along in planning to be feasible.
We established a major capability for doing weapons effects tests. The facility on the
Big Black River was to do explosive detonation studies in water. This led to a
continuation of work by the hydraulics division on weapons effects. They were still
actively involved when I was head of DNA [Defense Nuclear Agency] in the early
1970s. This started while I was there, but it had grown out of the nuclear weapons
program of the Manhattan District. WES determined the effects of a detonation in
water, how it propagates, and so forth.
.
Q.
And that assignment went to the Waterways Experiment Station basically
A
They were experienced in hydraulics and model studies.
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