________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Q:
Since you were at the Engineer School as commandant later, how would you compare the
basic course you went through with the basic course of the Army in the late '80s?
A:
Well, that's difficult to say. I would think we thought we did a better job later, but I'd have to
say I thought they did a pretty good job on me as a new lieutenant. We probably had more
practical experience later when I was commandant in the course than when I went through.
There was a thought, which was probably erroneous, back in our day that since we had been
at West Point, we'd had all that field duty, we didn't need all that field duty at Fort Belvoir.
The ROTC [Reserve Officers Training Corps] cadets did need it, it must have been decided,
and so they went to a thing called a "BOMOP," which was an extra couple of weeks to get
them caught up. I know in our cadet command these days, the "can-do" in the ROTC summer
camps have taken on a whole different mission orientation. I don't know what it was in those
days, so whether that was right or wrong I don't know. In any event, we didn't have much of
that kind of field duty in the basic course. Later, when I was commandant, we sent everybody
in the basic course, regardless of source of commission, out to Camp A. P. Hill to get the
same kind of hands-on experience.
I thought in those days that we covered an awful lot of subjects and learned a lot about
things. Some things that we didn't have later at Belvoir--couldn't teach them because of
available hours--we got then. That now should pick up again with the school relocated to
Fort Leonard Wood. I always thought as commandant that there ought to be a tracking at the
end of the course, a couple of weeks devoted to the new assignment of the officer. For
example, devoted to expectations in a division assignment or Corps combat battalion, or
combat heavy battalions, and a topo track.
Our engineer basic course was pointed toward a bit more of the career aspects back in the
'50s, whereas when I was commandant, it was oriented to being a platoon leader. In both
cases you were going to be a platoon leader. In neither case did we have the armored
personnel carriers at Fort Belvoir so that we could practice for someone like me and others
who were going to armored or mech divisions. So, everything we did of a practical nature
was wheeled. At Fort Leonard Wood the idea would be to teach the lieutenant the kinds of
things to expect generally, and in a couple of weeks, if he was going to a mech division, let
him go through some heavy division kind of exercises. If he was going to a light division,
light division kind of drills. If he or she was going topo, a specific orientation there. If he or
she was going to a combat heavy battalion, then put him/her into the "million dollar hole"
[construction equipment training] at Leonard Wood and have that experience.
When I was a lieutenant at Belvoir, we had the "mech and tech" department with all the
construction equipment where we got to see and operate that equipment. By the time I was
back as commandant, the mech and tech department had already moved to Leonard Wood, so
we didn't have that. As a lieutenant I drove a grader, I drove a dozer, I operated all these
kinds of things, but we couldn't do that for lieutenants when I was commandant. You can
now do them again at Fort Leonard Wood.
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