Memoirs
A
We had a good group. Dick Fields was the chief of engineering and did a very fine job.
As I remember, he had originally come out of the Missouri River Division, but he was
already there when I arrived in Dallas I brought in a new head of construction George
the Little Rock District. He had worked for me in the Titan II program.
We had a good hydropower design section in the division
because of the high
number of hydro plants we were building throughout the division. Roy
who was
the executive assistant in the division office, was primarily involved in dealing with
political and public relations affairs. He knew the area very well, particularly Texas,
Arkansas, and Oklahoma, and was extremely valuable in dealing with local interests.
Joe Hoffman was legal counsel and a great asset.
Would you have any comments about your district engineers during this time period?
A
Well, most of the time Colonel Charles Maynard was the district engineer in Little
Rock. Colonel John Morris, later Chief of Engineers, was the district engineer in Tulsa;
Colonel Frank Koisch in Fort Worth. Basically, those were the three most active
districts. I dealt with all five of them, but Galveston and Albuquerque were relatively
small districts. I think we had good district engineers. I used a system of field visits. I
guess I was out close to half the time and tried to get to each of the district offices
fairly frequently as well as to the major jobs in the field. While I was in Dallas, I was
also a member of the Mississippi River Commission. This involvement was very
interesting and significant to me because I had grown up near the Mississippi River.
The
WES had also added to my detailed knowledge of the lower
Mississippi River. I enjoyed being a part of that activity and association.
Eighth Army 1964-1966
d
'
Q ..
position
Korea, correct?
Your next assignment was to a
A ..
Yes, I was assigned to Eighth Army as the deputy chief of staff of the Army, not a
usual assignment for an engineer general officer. My understanding from General
Wilson, when he told me about it, was that he wanted to get engineer genera1 officers
in branch immaterial positions and in military assignments. With this opportunity, he
had nominated me for the assignment.
Q ..
What would be the advantage of doing that?
A ..
Getting the engineer officer better known throughout the Army and overcoming some
of the feeling that engineers were different,- or thought they were different.
Q ..
That's the feeling the engineers had?
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