________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
masked in the buildings typical of the way we did our general defense plan. We didn't tent in
the woods, we went into buildings where we would be camouflaged within the German
countryside. Also, the brigade, like the Corps headquarters, played both orange and blue.
Thus, I was both the orange engineer and the blue engineer. Within my own headquarters, my
S2 and S3 shops had both an orange segment and a blue segment, and they weren't
permitted to see the other's side of the maps.
At the Corps headquarters they played the same way. There was a G3 orange and G3 blue.
The Corps headquarters and the Corps engineer operated on both sides, but it was a control
thing too. I mean, the Corps ran the exercise so they were there making sure the training
objectives were met. So, I would do the same thing down in my headquarters for engineers.
We would play each side--play orange and blue. So, if you wanted to call the engineer
brigade for support for something and you were orange forces, then you had an engineer
brigade to call to. If you wanted to call the Corps for something, you had a Corps to call to.
There was always somebody to call to.
I also wore the white controller/umpire stripe on my helmet. I would go back and forth--I
could be blue one day and I could be orange another day. I would go visit the forces in each
of those modes. One day I might be helping the 1st Engineer Battalion commander find one
of his long-lost companies with my helicopter because he couldn't get one from division. The
next day I might be over with the 10th Engineers of the orange force doing something or
back with the 79th on their big bridge.
This allowed me then to see both sides and pull all of the engineer things together--to get the
most from our training.
I diverted to tell you that, but back to the first day of the exercise when orange had attacked
and the 1st Division was in-country but physically on the move from POMCUS sites and
staging areas and not yet in the maneuver box--a rather realistic situation. The Corps
commander decided to give me and the 7th Engineer Brigade responsibility for the river line,
knowing we didn't have forces to defend them but were, in fact, preparing the bridges to be
blown. The concept was that the 1st Infantry Division would come in and take over
responsibility for the bridges and the river line from me. I had no forces to defend with but
had the 9th Engineer Battalion, which had not yet passed to the control of the 1st Infantry
Division. The 20th Engineer Battalion had arrived, too, so it was also attached to me. So, in
effect, I now had the blue force responsibility for the river line, and we had some fourteen or
fifteen bridges.
As I mentioned, the covering force collapsed quickly. Instead of being relieved by the 1st
Division early enough so they could fight the river line battle, I was still owning bridges
when orange forces were approaching those bridges. So, the 9th and 20th Engineer
Battalions, working for me, started destroying the bridges without exposing that there was
really little force on the near bank. It was a dicey time as I was flying about trying to figure
out who and what and where. I got a real appreciation for the difficulty.
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