John W. Morris
Introduction
William C. Baldwin
John W. Morris was sworn in as 44th Chief of Engineers on 1 July 1976. He had already served
in the Corps of Engineers' headquarters, the Office of the Chief of Engineers (OCE), for four years,
first as Director of Civil Works and then briefly as Deputy Chief of Engineers. Figuring that he would
be too old to fulfill a term as Chief of Engineers when the present Chief ended his term in 1977, he
and his wife Gerry had already begun discussing retirement from his military career. Unexpectedly,
the Chief, Lieutenant General William C. Gribble, Jr., announced that he was retiring more than a year
early and that General Morris would be his successor. For more than eight years, General Morris
occupied key leadership roles in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during one of the most turbulent
decades in the organization's existence.
During the 1970s the growing concern about the quality of the country's natural environment hit
the Corps of Engineers with full force. Not only did the Corps' large program of water resources
development come under attack, but also Congress and the courts pushed the organization into an
extensive and controversial wetlands regulatory role. Declining budgets and growing environmental
criticism also dampened enthusiasm for construction of water resources projects that had been the
Corps' forte in the decades after World War II.
The decade of the 1970s also brought profound changes in the nation's defense posture. Military
expenditures declined markedly as the war in Vietnam ended with a corresponding decline in the
Corps' construction for the Army and the Air Force. Two massive overseas construction programs,
however, took up the slack. The reimbursable construction for the Saudi Arabian armed forces and
the construction of Israeli airbases in the wake of the Camp David Accords gave the Corps a huge but
delicate overseas workload. Keeping the demanding overseas and traditional domestic customers
happy and fulfilling their expectations became major management challenges.
General Morris' military career leading up to his selection as Chief of Engineers was not atypical
of the careers of other post-World War II chiefs. He graduated from West Point in the summer of 1943
after a three-year course shortened because of World War II. For three years he served in the Far East
in Engineer aviation battalions and in staff positions after the war ended. In addition to the standard
Army schooling at the Engineer School, Command and General Staff College, and the War College,
General Morris obtained a master's degree in civil engineering at the University of Iowa.
His other assignments reflected the post-war Engineer missions of military construction, civil
works, and service in troop units. In the mid-1950s he was area engineer at the Goose Bay Airbase
building a variety of facilities under a cost-plus contract on a tight schedule enduring harsh climatic
conditions. Earlier he began his long association with the Corps' water resources program by serving
as executive officer in the Savannah Engineer District. In 1960 he returned to Engineer troop units
where he had served as a young officer during World War II by commanding the 8th Engineer
Battalion of the 1st Cavalry Division in South Korea.
Within each Engineer mission area, General Morris held both staff and command positions. Early
in his career he was on the staff of the Engineer School in West Germany and later he served in the
military personnel division of the Office of the Chief of Engineers in a period when the Chief had
substantial Engineer personnel responsibilities. His Army staff experience came in the turbulent mid-
1960s when he was deputy chief of Legislative Liaison.
By 1960 General Morris began to receive the all-important senior command positions. In addition
to commanding troops in the 8th Engineer Battalion, 1st Cavalry Division, he served as a regimental
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