Engineer Memoirs
it worked out well. That was one of the advantages of only working with one ministry. You
had only to understand one ministry, as opposed to trying to figure out two or three.
King Khalid showed up at major events like t h e dedication of the National Guard
Headquarters. At Al Batin, we built a guest home for him which he used once or twice.
It's too bad, in a way, that the American industry lost its preeminence in this program as other
governments began to subsidize their construction industry. I think I've covered that already.
Q:
Did you go over several times?
Yes. I was in and out of there several times a year. I happened to be in Saudi Arabia the night
A:
that the Camp David agreement was to be signed. Gerry and I were guests of Governor [John
C.] West, the American ambassador to Saudi Arabia. That evening he was called away from
our dinner party. Later I learned he had received instructions to tell the King that the
agreement had been signed. There was not a great deal of enthusiasm in Saudi Arabia for the
Camp David agreement, as I recall.
The next day I was in Egypt to do some work with the Suez Canal authorities and I was the
guest of Chairman Mashour at his headquarters in Ismailia. The Egyptians were delighted
with the Camp David agreement. There were parades and Mashour had to leave us also, but
he went to celebrate. While we were there, somebody asked what the Corps was going to do
about those two airfields, which leads us into the Israeli airfield project, although you haven't
asked about it. Along with the Saudi program, this became a major effort of the Corps.
Believe it or not, I didn't know anything about the two airfields when I was asked this
question. I replied, "What airfields?" So I learned, sketchily, that the Corps was to replicate
General Morris participated when King Khalid of Saudi Arabia dedicated the National Guard
headquarters building.
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