Engineer Memoirs
the Command General Staff College course, so I -was given credit without ever
attending.
Q.
I think in our interview in April I asked you if you encountered any problems not being
a West Point graduate. Your assessment, I believe, was that you had expected that as
a possibility but you had not found it so. Did this continue to hold true?
I think I said then-I'll say now, a n y w a y - as far as I'm concerned it didn't make any
A
difference. I never ran into any problem.
Thule, Greenland, 1959-1960
.
Q.
What was behind your assignment toThule, Greenland? Why were you selected, and
how did you feel about this assignment?
I don't know what was behind it other than the fact that there was a job to do there. It
A
was a key job for the Air Force and one that the chief and General Wilson, who was the
deputy at the time, felt very strongly needed to be done. I was apparently a candidate
for overseas assignment at about that time. Why I, specifically, was chosen, I don't
know. I do know that I complained a little bit about it. Having had the experience of
21 years of service, I thought I was a little bit senior to be taking an assignment as an
area engineer.
However, other than my experience at the Waterways Experiment Station, I had not
been directly involved in construction, either military or civil. I assume that had
something to do with the decision. In retrospect, I still feel that I was a little senior for
the assignment, but it was a good experience. think we were quite successful in
executing the program under some tremendous environmental handicaps. The
combination of the darkness and cold and long supply line made it an extremely difficult
operation.
Q.
About how many people did you have working for you?
A
The contractor was a partnership with Peter
as the principal. The
engineer
Metcalf and Eddy, who did some on-site inspection working for the area
engineer's office, which had about ten people. It was a very cooperative group that
worked very well. As far as numbers of people, my memory is that the contractor
employed about 2,000 craftsmen at peak strength.
As I have
in the past, on the 2d of January 1960, we were very actively engaged
at the peak of activity. It was minus 40 degrees, dark 24 hours a day, and we still had
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