Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
sound of guns. I still remember a friend coming up and saying, "I wonder why I'm going to
Korea when I've been to Korea and never Vietnam, and you're going back to Vietnam and
you've already been there." I said, "It's very simple. I wanted to make sure I went to Vietnam
so I sent in a volunteer statement. That's why."
The day came when the Officer Personnel Directorate was to send their assignment officers
out to deliver the assignment envelopes and be available to answer questions. I was a major
at that time, on the lieutenant colonels list. Major Ernie Edgar was the assignment guy that
flew out with all of the engineer assignment envelopes. I had met him but didn't know him
too well at that time. Anyway, he said, "Well, here's the good news, but there's something
else." The good news was that I was being assigned to Vietnam and recommended for
command of the 577th Engineer Battalion. So, I mean, that was really neat because I was
going back and I was going to get a command.
Then I said, "Well, what's the something else?" He said, "You'll receive a letter this
afternoon from the Chief of Staff of the Army that nominates you to be one of the first in the
Province Senior Advisers Program." General Harold K. Johnson had been out and talked to
us about six weeks before and introduced this new program where they were going to take
people who had been to Vietnam before, who had experience as advisers, bring them back
and put them in the key job of province senior adviser. They would stay there for two years
so we'd have continuity in the program. To sweeten the pot, the wives were going to be given
orders to the Philippines. You were going to be able to get flights back and forth and certain
extra leave and that sort of thing.
I thought at the time that General Johnson was explaining the program that because I was a
major and they were looking for lieutenant colonels I would not be involved. "Wow, that's
really an important job," I thought. Because of my experience in Vietnam operations, I really
thought that this was a very important job and program and we were on the right path. I also
thought, "Boy, that'd really be a tough decision." So, anyway, my letter arrived that
afternoon. Now I had two nice jobs: province senior adviser and battalion commander.
Everybody at happy hour was in the dialogue of, "What are you doing? What have you got?
Where are you going?" The comments to me were, "Wow, you have a tough decision. You
cannot turn down province senior adviser since you have been personally selected. You
cannot turn down the Chief of Staff of the Army." Then they also said, "Wow, command,
battalion command, that's really super" because I was one of the first of my year group to be
selected for command. I had about two or three weeks to answer with my acceptance of the
province senior adviser job. Battalion command was there but, I mean, obviously what the
Officer Personnel Directorate wanted to know was whether I was going to take this other job.
So, I really warred with myself, thought it over with a lot of deep thought and a lot of advice
from a lot of people, and it sort of came down to 5050 on either side of the question.
Some said, "Well, you know, your career is over if you turn down province senior adviser
because the black mark will be in your file forever." So, I warred with myself and grappled
with the decision. I called Major General Bill Gribble, who had been one of my mentors, one
night at home and asked, "What do you think?" and he gave me his views.
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