tion. By 1952, the program had grown to .8 billion.
This work included the construction of five Air Force
bases in Morocco. A new District was created and
staffed by personnel from existing Districts. It was giv-
en six months to bring these bases to a state of at least
minimum readiness. The deadline was met; in fact,
planes began landing at one of the bases only 64 days
after construction began.
The Tulsa and Mobile Districts, along with their sis-
ter Districts,,, again shifted their efforts from civil
works to military construction. The Tulsa District,
from a 1950 workload of million in civil works and
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million in military construction, made a smooth
transition to a military construction program and placed
about 0 million in military construction contracts
during the war. The Mobile District underwent a simi-
lar transformation as its military program grew from
million to 0 million and its work force devoted to
the military construction effort expanded from 91 to
413.
Twice in less than 20 years, teams of military and ci-
vilian men and women had shifted their efforts from
civil works to military construction, thus showing the
One of the elements of the Corps' wartime Manhattan Project
value of having an existing engineering and construc-
the District reached a peak strength of 3,250 in 1942.
tion organization that could be mobilized rapidly to
During the war years, the Tulsa District placed 0
meet the nation's military construction needs during
million in military construction.
wartime.
In January 1942, lines of communication across the
Pacific to Australia were threatened by the Japanese
Civil works training
advance. At this time, the civil works organization
based at Honolulu, working with American construc-
The civil works program of the Corps of Engineers
tion firms available in the area, was able to develop the
provides unique training opportunities for officers. A
so-called Southwest Passage, a chain of airfields from
veteran of the 1927 Mississippi River flood said of the
Hawaii, Canton Island, Fiji, and New Caledonia to
experience: "In physical and mental strain, a prolonged
Australia and the Philippines. This combined organiza-
high-water fight on threatened levees can only be com-
tion also supervised construction projects in Australia
pared with real war." In 1932, Gen. Douglas MacAr-
for the United States Army forces there.
thur, who was a Corps of Engineers officer, recognized
The Corps' most notable achievement during the
the importance of this training when he said that the
war was the creation of the atomic bomb. In August
civil works program "furnishes officers of the Corps
1942, the Manhattan District was organized to design
with the finest possible peacetime training in the mani-
and construct the facilities necessary to support the de-
fold construction, engineering, and procurement tasks
velopment of the bomb. Much of its staff was drawn
that devolve upon them in time of war."
from existing Districts. In September 1942, Gen. Les-
lie R. Groves, an Engineer officer, was appointed the
director of the Manhattan Project, with the responsibil-
ity of creating the atomic bomb and directing all as-
pects of the project. This billion effort included the
acquisition of over 530,000 acres of real estate, the con-
struction of industrial facilities, and the direction of
45,000 military, civilian, and contractor personnel.
During World War II, the Corps executed an bil-
lion domestic military construction program that was
instrumental in assuring victory in the war. With its
flexibility to adapt to changing missions, the Corps
was able to deliver the facilities needed to support a
four-million-man Army.
Mobilized again
At the end of World War II, the Corps briefly re-
turned to its normal peacetime activities. Following the
invasion of South Korea in 1950, the Corps again under-
took a massive military construction program by shift-
ing its work force from civil works to military construc-
The Pentagon was completed by the Corps in 1943
The Military Engineer, January-February, 1977
14
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