Engineer Memoirs
Engineer Aviation Unit Training Center, and there were several West Pointers there. However,
later I was the only regular Army officer, much less West Pointer, in my battalion.
Well, wait a minute. I take that back. We had one regular Army captain who had been promoted
after some 20 years of enlisted service. He was a regular officer, so there were two of us, but I
was the only West Pointer.
My next battalion did have a West Pointer as exec, a Major Jim Hottenroth.
So, to answer your question, once you leave West Point, class standing is not a factor unless you
look at a USMA [U.S. Military Academy] roster. The standing serves a useful purpose at West
Point, but it's not a factor in daily life of the Army. We don't ask whether a man is smart or not.
You deal with him as you find him. A lot of that has to do with how good you are at listening to
people and how good you are at talking to them.
I guess one of the things that led me to ask that was your comment about the other Chiefs of
Q:
Engineers and where they have stood in their class. What you seem to be saying is that if you
choose to look at that, you find that other people don't really think about it much.
A:
As a matter of fact, I will say this. I don't
believe I ever demonstrated at West Point
my actual academic capability. The
things I wanted to do well, I did very
well, if I worked on it-like electricity, I
was eighth or ninth in my class. Law, I
was fourth or fifth. I don't know what to
make of that, except I think it always
gave me a little extra initiative once
commissioned to do well because I
thought I had to prove something.
You said you were the senior cadet on
the military side?
No, not the senior cadet. I meant to say I
A:
was a senior cadet.
Q: Oh, okay.
I think out of my class, I was about 12 or
A:
better in cadet rank. Rogers was number
one, always.
Now, you've said some things that
indicate why that was true. Do you have
any more comments about yourself as a
leader?
It was probably because I realized at the
A:
end of my plebe year that wasn't going
to go far unless I was recognized for
something. When you hid your light
under a bushel at West Point, it's going
to stay there. There's no question about
Graduation Picture of Cadet Captain
it.
John W. Morris in 1943.
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