Carroll H. Dunn
Q ..
I would like to ask you two other questions about the Waterways Experiment Station
I'm sure you would anticipate. One is about its transfer in 1949 from the Mississippi
River Commission
to OCE under the Assistant Chief of Civil Works. At the
time you were there at the Waterways Experiment Station, there was some pressure to
put it back under MRC. And there were two presidents of the commission. Who were
they?
A ..
was one. You said you just interviewed John
He was there most of the
time I was there. Peter Feringa was there ahead of
Q ..
would have been the major one?
A ..
He was for it.
Q ..
He was in favor of regaining control. Before getting into some of the reasons given, do
you recall the position of the Chief of Engineers' office?
A ..
Basically, the Chief of Engineers agreed with having it directly under that office. Their
reasoning, I
was pretty much the same as mine. Only a relatively small percentage
of the time--maybe 25 percent, but I'm guessing at this figure-was what we were
doing directly related to the Mississippi River Commission. I felt that since we were
working not only on civil worksactivities - i n c l u d i n g OCE projects but also those of
other divisions and districts, as well as on some military work-it was inappropriate to
assign the station to a single subordinate element. This was fine when the station was
doing only MRC work, but now they had branched out. Other offices for whom we
were doing work would feel much freer about dealing with us than they would if they
felt [their jobs] were always going to [receive a lower] priority than something that the
MRC wanted to do. I still think it's a very valid argument.
-
Q ..
What about
position, do you recall?
A ..
In my conversations with him it was very clear he would like to have seen the
experiment
under the division [MRC] It had been that way during a previous
assignment that he had held within the division. He was not adamant on the subject, and
never did we have any personal animosity over it. There was just a gentlemen's
agreement to disagree. At least, that was my position. It would be interesting if he were
asked about this.
Q ..
Yes, he should be asked about it. So you would say that even within MRC, there
wasn't that strong an effort
65
Previous Page
