Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Q:
Well, it was the sort of position that gave you a lot of high-level contacts throughout the
Corps of Engineers, wasn't it, at the general level and with the colonels there at the time? A
pretty delicate position for a lieutenant colonel.
A:
It was a delicate position. A lot of folks really interacted, and some not so positively.
Remember, that's with the Chief of Colonels Division there. I had a very good one, Colonel
Lou Tixier (Tooshay, a French pronunciation), who was a grizzled old veteran. Most of his
peers, his West Point classmates, were generals long ago, so he knew all of them on a first-
name basis.
He was the decision maker. I made no final decisions on policy as to an assignment. I would
send up my recommendations and he would put the final approval on them. So, when
somebody really wanted to object, I could dialogue with the person, but ultimately it came
back to Colonel Tixier.
I remember well dealing with Korea and the difference in hours and the nominative process,
getting calls at home three nights in a row, just beating me up one side and down the other
about someone's disagreement with the way things were going. So, dutifully, I would go in
the next day and say, "Well, I had a call from colonel so and so last night"--this wasn't the
person being assigned, this was a person representing the command--"and he was really irate
and really worked me over. It's not getting any more pleasant. Here's the facts--and I still
think my recommendation and your decision is the right way to go."
Lou Tixier would say, "Well, you tell so and so to quit climbing on your butt and tell him to
call me next time. He talks to you no more." That was sort of the way we were. We would try
to work it out, but sometimes things get to the point of not being able to be worked out. Then
he was there, and he was of the vintage and the point in life where he could stand up and call
it like it was and take it.
Meanwhile, those of us more junior were sitting there working with folks a grade up, trying
to do the best we could to do it the right way. I thought the system worked pretty well. I
mean, I'm calling everybody "Sir" when I'm talking to them and trying to work it out. I knew
all these other communication links existed, and I knew also that a lot of folks would be
communicating back to the Chief of Engineers. A lot of those went to the exec at the time,
Colonel Ed Peel, or the deputy at the time, Major General Andy Rollins.
I got calls from the Chief's office. I would say, invariably, those calls--and I just want to
make that clear now--invariably, those calls from either Ed Peel or Andy Rollins started
with "So and so called about this situation. What's going on?" They were not calling and
saying, "I want you to make this happen." So, it was put in the right context. Typically, I
would explain what was happening and they'd say, "Well, it sounds right to me," or "You
know, you really ought to consider so and so," and that would be some other factor that
maybe I needed to throw into the equation as I worked it out. I thought the system worked
pretty well from that aspect.
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