John W. Morris
A White House meeting presided over by President Carter to discuss dam safety on
28 November 1977.
We had in the works, at that time, two unique items of interest to the OMB. One was a new
airplane for the Corps. The old twin prop G-l was the oldest of its type flying. We wanted
to replace that with a jet, a G-2. The Congress had okayed it but OMB wouldn't release the
money.
The other item concerned a new athletic facility at West Point for basketball and ice hockey.
Congress had approved a million supplemental military construction appropriation to meet
a cost overrun. OMB claimed President Carter didn't want to release that money because
there was too much need in the Army for bullets and rifles and he couldn't, just on the eve
of the election, spend million or more to build a basketball court.
When the word got out about the 17 September visit, the guys in OMB began to wonder what
I was going to talk about. They called up and asked, so I indicated, "I just want to go over
and say goodbye." The OMB representative then asked if was going to talk about that
airplane. I said, "Oh, I'm glad you reminded me, but I don't know whether I'll talk about it
or not." So we started a little game.
For some reason or another I had to go see Mr. McIntyre, Jim McIntyre, the director of the
OMB, prior to September 17. While there the basketball court came up and he said, "Well,
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