________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Gene Forrester would like to have a name in two or three days. That's, again, in the first
week.
Then General Rollins called me up and said, "Sam, we have this new thing, it was effective
on the 1st of July." I had reported in on the 3rd; I believe he called on the 5th and said we
have this new thing called the Officer Personnel Management System [OPMS]. "How about
coming over in a couple of weeks and briefing the Chief of Engineers and tell him what it's
all about and its impact on the Corps?"
We had just driven down from Newport, had a brand-new home we had just purchased, and
we were trying to get the house set up for the kids in a new neighborhood and everything
else. I mean, I was sort of overwhelmed with the expectations of folks for me. I was still
trying to find my way down George Washington Parkway, across the 14th Street Bridge, to
get to the tempo buildings and make things go.
Then it wasn't long thereafter that there was a lieutenant colonel standing in front of my desk
saying he wanted the files of the best engineer colonels I had because General [William E.]
DePuy was forming this new thing called TRADOC, splitting up the Continental Army
Command into TRADOC and FORSCOM [Forces Command]. General DePuy was going to
get the best officers in the Army to serve for him, and "I'm here as his stalking horse to find
out who they are so I can recommend them. So, give me your best files. I'll be back in 20
minutes for them." So, the officer left, went down and accosted another assignment officer. I
went over to Colonel Church Matthews, who was the ordnance colonels assignment officer,
and I said, "Who was THAT? We give things away like that? Who is this guy?" Church said,
"Well, that was Colonel Max Thurman. He's going to set up the new TRADOC and he's
going to get them anyway, so you might as well identify who they are."
So, as I said, the job had a lot of things about it. I guess that's why, ever since, every time we
had a new Colonels Division engineer assignment officer, I've tried to call them up the first
week he was on the job and say, "Congratulations. You have a very important job, but it's
difficult. Anytime you feel that you're in the cold sweats or you want to talk about anything,
give me a call. I'm not in touch with the database any more, but if you would just like to
pursue anything, just keep your cool and I'll be happy to help you out."
The assignment duties for anybody in officer assignments are much the same from the
standpoint of being interested in career development, taking care of the person, but I
remember well a call from General Carroll LeTellier. He called me my first week in the job.
He was commanding the Engineer Command in Europe. Later, of course, parts of it became
the 18th Brigade. He called up and said, "Sam, I'm commanding a big outfit and use a lot of
your colonels in very important positions. Chuck Fiala always did a fair job by us, and I want
you to know that we really need good people over here because we're in Europe, and they're
all out by themselves doing important work. Just one thing: I'll always wait and take an
underlap for the better man."
That was reassuring to hear because so many people call up and say, "I want your perfect
man and I want him with a two-week overlap." When you're dealing with colonels, one
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