________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
for instance, and I'd want to try it one way and he countermanded the instructions and did it
the same way they'd always done it. So, he was moved to another position and I was given a
new platoon sergeant.
So, I guess my answer to your question is that I learned things from that platoon sergeant. By
the same token, it wasn't the all-enduring, supporting relationship that it could have been and
should have been. I would attribute that to him. Human nature was a prime factor. He took
that position because he had been a platoon leader time and time again.
Q:
Who was the battalion commander?
A:
Lieutenant Colonel Howard B. Kaufman was the first. He later was the Rock Island District
Engineer. I liked him very much.
Q:
This was '56 to '59, I believe.
A:
March '57 to November '59.
Q:
Yes. Is this about the time that the Army was experimenting with or trying to deal with
tactical nuclear weapons? General Taylor, I think, during this period introduced the concept
of the pentomic division? How did that affect you?
A:
Thank goodness I was spared that because I was in an armored division. The other divisions
in Germany were organized pentomic with five battle groups. We were in the old armored
division concept with three combat commands. Unlike World War II, where there was a
Combat Command Reserve, which was mainly a headquarters that would take elements of
the six maneuver battalions and put them together when committed and they'd plan the
counterattacks. Now the Third Combat Command was Command C to go along with
Commands A and B, and it had maneuver units assigned.
So, I really didn't participate in the pentomic concept. Of course, when we went into the
Reorganization Objective Army Division concept later, it was modeled after the armored
division. Later, under the reorganization, the mech infantry divisions formed much like the
armored divisions with a different mix of tank and mech infantry battalions. They trained the
same, fought the same, and had the brigade-to-battalion task force relationship about the
same. So, I think I was fortunate in starting off with what was going to be an enduring thing.
Again, when I came back as the VII Corps engineer and 7th Engineer Brigade commander
later on, we were in a Corps and supporting divisions that were similar to the ones I had been
in as a lieutenant.
Q:
Did your training place a lot of emphasis on tactical nuclear weapons and dealing with that
possibility?
A:
We had some. We'd draw curves for fallout, do certain things, but there was not a great
emphasis on it. Most of it was because, even then, the feeling in the armored division was,
"We'll survive because we can move, and we'll always keep moving."
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