Enaineer Memoirs
Vietnam ran through all of the things we were doing. Events like the Robert Kennedy funeral, the
bag boys, so forth and so on, those were blips because the mainstream of our business dealt with
Vietnam. The Tet Offensive had a major impact on legislative activities.
Q .. Did congressmen come to you when there were the riots in Washington after Martin Luther King
was assassinated?
A:
Not to my recollection. When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was in Chief of Staff
General Johnson's office the moment it came on the TV. It was late in the evening. He was very
upset about that and anticipated troubles.
The city was burning, then. My daughter, I remember, came to Washington by plane. I met her,
and when she landed she mentioned how terrible it was to see from the air that the capital city of
Washington was being
I didn't personally get involved in any of the demonstrations nor with congressional activities.
Q:
Are there more things you'd like to talk about with the Legislative Liaison?
A:
It was a jewel and a very interesting assignment. It's one of those jobs, again, where you have
recurring opportunities to fail. I keep talking about that, but there are a lot of jobs where you
don't have a chance to screw up, you're too protected. Not so in Goose Bay, nor in Tulsa, and
certainly not in Legislative Liaison. Legislative Liaison was the least protected and the most
exposed.
I do want to add a comment about the excellent staff. The ladies that worked in that office really
trained the new officers. They were tremendous. Ethel Lamers was just a spectacular person as
far as work and understanding were concerned, and she was better than most people will ever be
in handling tough politicians.
So it was a good assignment and there was nothing pretentious about it. We had some of the
worst offices in the Pentagon. We couldn't go anywhere without going up and down stairs. That
was probably about the way it should be because you could never find us. If a visitor wanted to
find the chief of Legislative Liaison, he'd need a map or a guide or something. General Penney
spent a lot of time with the Chiefs of Staff and with the Secretary of the Army, and so did I.
Finally, upon leaving the Army staff for Vietnam, I had the clear belief that my career
development was complete and that whatever success I might have henceforth would depend
entirely on how well I had learned the lessons from the assignments I had been given leading to
selection for general officer rank. Frankly, I was satisfied at the time that those assignments
covered whatever might lie ahead in either engineer or branch-immaterial duty. Still, I was to
learn that even 26 years had not fully prepared me for Vietnam, nor for the environmental
experiences yet to come.
Before turning to Vietnam, I need to mention that my father had died in January 1969. My mother
was a semi-invalid and alone. Also my mother-in-law was ill. Susan was about to graduate from
the University of Connecticut. In the summer of 1968 I had sworn in John as a private in the U.S.
Army and he had entered the West Point Prep School shortly thereafter. When I left for Vietnam,
he was waiting to be accepted for the Academy. If he missed, I would have seen him in Vietnam.
Consequently, I had to leave Gerry by herself and also to attempt to settle my father's estate by
mail from Southeast Asia. It was not a good time for me to be away, but I doubt there ever
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