Engineer Memoirs
nor make any provision for moving my family. That indicates the speed with which the
organization was established and began to operate.
Q ..
What was the reaction to this new assignment? Was it welcomed?
Well, I'm sure that there were people who felt that no special organization should be
A
established for this program. However, it was a very large program and required
working very closely with the Air Force, which was responsible for supervising the
design as well as the follow-on weapons placement. This necessary close contact with
the Air Force, in my mind, made it an appropriate decision.
Certainly, if there was unhappiness, it didn't really show. The organization for
CEBMCO was essentially staffed with people
the Corps as a whole; I don't know
of any other organization or any other means by which such a quick response could
have taken place. As I remember the figures, there were 50 or 60 people in the liaison
when it became an operating element under Al Welling. Tom Hayes was his
deputy; Hayes having been the head of the liaison office. Colonel [Carlin H.] Whitesell
was to be the Titan I director, I had the responsibility for Titan II, [Charles C.] Noble
had the Minuteman assignment, and "Woody" Wilson was in charge of completion of
the Atlas F program. We established the office and within 30 days we were actually in
operation. Within six months, I guess there were a total 1,500 Corps people spread out
across the country at the various missile sites, with work actually under way. I think it
was a tremendous accomplishment. One of the things that made it possible was the fact
that we had Corpswide standard contract procedures and methods of operation so that
we could
people together from a large number of Corps
and they could
"hit the ground running." We didn't have to establish a lot of new procedures in order
to
The Titan I and the Atlas F projects were both under way, and they were taken over
as they were proceeding. Titan had not started, and Minuteman was a little bit further
behind. For the Titan II program, we established the office early in August and let the
first contracts for field work in early October. We continued to build the program very
rapidly and established field offices in Little Rock, Arkansas; Wichita, Kansas; and
Tucson, Arizona; appropriately manned with both military and civilian personnel as
required. My view is that the responsiveness of the Corps and the availability of
uniform procedures for operating, including contract administration and construction
supervision, were outstanding assets in making a successful program possible.
Q.
Is that why the Secretary of Defense made this decision? Do you have any insight into
that decision?
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