________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Now, when you build such an airfield you don't start with mountains; thus, you don't have to
cleave off great amounts of earth. There should be enough work expected to do a lot of
grading and to have tractor-scrapers to be dropped in. The concept is that you go with the
light engineer equipment that you can drop in, and then you bring in bigger equipment when
you want bigger tasks to be performed.
Q:
What sorts of lessons learned did you get out of this assignment in the sense that we talked
earlier that helped you later with your career? What did you see as the most prominent
benefits of this assignment?
A:
Well, I moved now up from company level to battalion level. Of course, I'd been an adviser
at battalion level so I already had a perspective in battalion operations, but now I was the
executive officer. The executive officer really operates both as a deputy to the commander
and as a chief of staff, really directing the staff in the battalion.
So, now I was putting together all those aspects for the commander. Different commanders
work things different ways. Some commanders are interested primarily in their S3
operations, so the S3 and the commander are always together, focused on operations, and
the executive officer worries about the S4, maintenance kinds of things. That was not so in
the 307th with Lieutenant Colonel Jack Waggener. He put them all under me and I directed
and integrated all staff activities: S1, S2, S3, S4, maintenance, chaplain, surgeon, and so
forth.
So, I guess that was a period where I found how you work all of those things. I found out
how you balance operations versus training versus maintenance. I learned about what
General Shy [Edward C.] Meyer talked about later when he was Chief of Staff, "keeping all
those balls in the air and making sure the glass balls don't drop and break." I told you I'd
learned a lot about maintenance as a lieutenant in the 23d Engineers. Now I was learning
about maintenance as a battalion exec because the 82d had very stringent, no-notice
maintenance inspections from division. They would descend upon us with notification in the
night and the next morning we'd be up against it with the maintenance inspection.
There was also learning as a field grade officer, being one notch up in the executive level of
trying to manage these many things and interact with other levels. My six months as assistant
division engineer gave me experience on a division staff with a requirement to work with the
G3 and the G4 and the assistant division commanders and chief of staff. I also gained
experience and knowledge with the XVIII Airborne Corps headquarters right there. We were
always interacting with them. So, I really experienced a perspective of things from the
company level up to how you run engineer companies within the context of supporting
brigades and supporting divisions.
Then the helicopter had advanced by this time too. Thus, the H13 bubble we had in
Germany just for reconnaissance and a little command and control had given way to Hueys.
With the lessons from Vietnam coming back, we'd go on Army tests using the mobile
concepts with the Hueys. I still remember one day when Captain Jack Grubbs' B Company
was reorganized as infantry and working with the task forces of the 2d Brigade. I was up in
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