John
Morris
Well, the next thing I knew, I was going to Tulsa, the largest civil works district in the Corps, and
I would be the junior district engineer. The Chief of Engineers then was General Wilson, and
from my own experience I think this is how the assignment evolved. I don't know if I mentioned
it or not, but I saw a lot of General Wilson when I was in Goose Bay and also in Savannah earlier.
Q.. He was in the North Atlantic Division?
A .. He was in charge of military construction in OCE while I was in the North Atlantic Division.
Q .. Military construction?
Yes, I pulled quite a boner with General Wilson in Goose Bay. When he came to Goose, Gerry
A
and I had him to our house for cocktails. I handed out some of those napkins with humorous
sayings on them. After he went home I went around to help Gerry clean up and I noticed the one
we gave him said, "Killjoy was here."
That wasn't such a good idea at the time, but I'm sure he remembered me when he became Chief
of Engineers. Anyhow, my understanding is that when the post-War College assignments came
around to General Wilson, he set my name aside for a bit. Finally, they plugged everybody else
in the holes and two things were left over, Tulsa District and me. So the Chief took a chance and
put us together. That's sometimes the way it is. Besides, it makes a good story. Some years later,
General [William] Cassidy told me he was sure Tulsa would be a "make or break" test.
In any case, I drew Tulsa. When I came home that day and told Gerry that we were going to
Tulsa, she said, "Well, you can go by yourself. I'm not going." Being a beach lover, she didn't
think much of going out to Oklahoma. The kids were excited about it and she, of course, went.
We left Carlisle about the 1st of June and got to Oklahoma a few weeks later. Colonel Howard
not met Howard, although I knew of him. He gave me a good briefing and I settled into the job
and we soon bought a house.
The people of Oklahoma were just great and we started off in a very, very fine atmosphere.To
buy the house I needed a loan. I'd met the president of the bank, a retired colonel and very
patriotic. Because the Corps of Engineers in Tulsa, Oklahoma, was an important and respected
military and public service organization, district engineers were well known and respected. As
I was getting ready to go through the necessary loan forms, collateral and everything, the bank
president came by and turned to his employee and said, "Don't worry about all that; just give him
the loan." You know, that's kind of neat when you think about it.
So we bought this new house out at
Joplin Street. Dave Helms, who helped me find the
house, called it 5 1 st and plowed ground. Our neighbor was an American Indian family on their
ranch. Their horses would come up to our fence, and John and Susan would feed them carrots.
Today our place is almost downtown, as Tulsa has grown so much in that direction.
Thus began our first tour in charge of a major civil works program. We'd been in Savannah, but
in Tulsa I was in charge. Senator [Robert S.] Kerr was still living. General Cassidy was Deputy
Chief of Engineers, and sent me off to Tulsa with some good advice. He indicated Tulsa was a
very important district, that Senator Kerr was very much involved in the public works program
as the chairman of the Senate committee. He wanted me to keep him posted on Senator Kerr and
to be responsive to the senator's needs and so forth.
I asked if that meant anything out of the ordinary, and General Cassidy asked me to just
remember that Senator Kerr was important to the water program, to the Chief, and to the Corps.
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