Engineer Memoirs
Q ..
Did you encourage him to go in?
..
I was surprised when he said he wanted to go to West Point, but was glad to help him
get an appointment when I became convinced that he really did want to go.
Q ..
Was the Corps of Engineers the place that he was heading for?
A ..
I don't know. He made the choice.
Q ..
I could ask him.
A ..
I'm glad he made the choice, but it was totally up to him.
Q ..
I want to ask you, too, about some of your activities since leaving the Army. Maybe we
could start by recalling something you mentioned a while ago when we weren't taping.
You stressed that you learned as an engineer, in your Corps experience, how to use
persuasion rather than to rely on the idea that because someone was a general officer,
all they needed to be able to do was issue orders. Could you comment a little bit on that
in relation to a business career?
A
There is no question that there is very little place for despotic activity in business life.
There is even less in the Army, for that matter, although some people do display these
characteristics, possibly not so much now as in times past. There are also despots in
business, but they started out as entrepreneurs or owners of companies and continued
to head their companies. But, basically in business-*in a major company-you're
dealing with equals, and you are dealing with people who are not in the habit of
jumping when somebody yells, "Jump!"
The Army really gives an opportunity to show what I consider to be appropriate
leadership. I feel that the Army gave me experience in leadership, particularly in some
of my assignments involving essentially civilian organizations. The Waterways
Experiment Station and the Southwestern Division gave me this opportunity to work
with people other than in a close-knit military discipline.
The combination of that experience along with Army training in leadership taught me
how to get along with people and how to influence people to work cooperatively
toward mutually desired results. For these reasons I feel that, contrary to some
thoughts about the "military mind," the military is a very good source of training in how
to deal with people. In many cases, surprisingly, I find that to be a deficiency in
business life. I find too many people in top-level positions who really don't know how
to get along with people and how to lead people or to work with people. They are not
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