Engineer
I can remember that it was six months after I started working for him before I heard
one word as to whether I was or wasn't doing what he wanted. I assumed I was,
lacking any instructions to the contrary.But really, it was about six months before he
said this is
he wanted me to do. He operated differently because of his inclination
to get himself involved in tremendous detail. I emphasize that he had a tremendous
capacity. I don't mean to imply that he let other things go. While Sturgis was content
to look at the broad picture and say let's do this, Itschner was much more involved in
the
details as well as the final decision.
Q ..
And he took home tremendous amounts of work, according to General Wilson.
A ..
Yes. I think you'll also find Wilson felt that Itschner was very hard to work for.
Q ..
One thing
General Wilson said about that period when he was in military
1956 to 1960, while General Itschner was chief-was that he felt that
General Itschner favored the civil side of the Corps over the military side. General
Wilson saw himself as trying to protect "the military side" from this partiality that
General Itschner had as chief Maybe you would have a comment on this, too, both
because you `were the exec at this time and because later you were in charge of military
construction.
A ..
I don't think there's any doubt but what Itschner, having moved from head of civil
works to be chief-although there was a short period when he was deputy-definitely
was much more at ease with and had a much closer relationship with the civil side. It
would be hard for me to say that he ignored the military side. On the other hand, I don't
have any problem at all seeing what General Wilson was talking about. It was also true
that the military side always had somebody else looking at it in the Pentagon. On the
civil works side, whatever went out of the chiefs
was the final answer. This was
true at that, time, but is not any longer. I think both his background and his final
authority for civil works led him to give a lot more of his time to the civil side than to
the military.
Q ..
Do you recall Joe Tofani?
A ..
Yes.
Q ..
We've been interviewing him about his career. How closely did you work with him?
A
He was in civil works as chief of planning. I knew Joe Tofani well. I had more contact
with him
I left OCE than while there. He was in the same job while I was the
division engineer of the Southwestern Division, and I would come back to give
testimony for annual budget hearings. I also knew him through my service on the Board
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