John W. Morris
Chief of Staff of the Army General Bernard Rogers (shaking hands with General Morris) addressed
Corps employees at the Engineer Day celebration in June 1979.
responsibilities that equal or exceed those of other four-star generals. I felt that way
especially because of the Israeli airfield job, which was hot at that time.
At one Army staff meeting, I think there were five generals trained as engineers around his
table. One interesting discussion arose around the policy that an infantry colonel with a
secondary MOS [military occupational specialty] in engineering could be a district engineer
while the regulations prohibit an engineer who has a secondary MOS in infantry from being
an infantry troop commander.
I told the staff that wasn't fair. I indicated also that these good infantrymen with secondary
MOSs in engineering would all transfer to the engineers anyhow, so we'll get the good ones,
and the Corps would be better off in the long run.
Of course, the Chief of Engineers worked with everybody on the Army staff, Personnel,
General Officers Branch, et cetera. The principal players were the Chief of Staff of the Army,
the Assistant Secretaries of the Army, the Secretary of the Army, and, of course, the OMB
and the president. The Secretary of Defense was involved, but only on rare occasions, like
the Israeli airfield job, which we'll talk about.
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