________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
A:
I believe so. That's my recollection.
Q:
Were there any problems with the facilities engineers reporting to General Ott rather than to
you? Did that create difficulties in getting the work done or did you not perceive that as a
problem?
A:
Oh, some, but it's like everywhere else. There's a chain of command and he was my boss
both on the troop side and on the community side, and so I had access to my boss to work the
problems. He had a deputy community commander who did most of the legwork in the
Stuttgart community, and that was Colonel Bob McDonald, Corps of Engineers. Bob had
once been in the 7th Brigade and in the LudwigsburgKornwestheim community, so he was
familiar with us.
He didn't bend over backwards to help us because he also was subcommunity commander
for Robinson Barracks in addition to being the overall deputy. We would have our arguments
and discussions on allocation of resources and priorities and that sort of thing, but he was
very professional in working these out. We'd make our case and he'd make his case and we'd
work out a lot of them. Very few of them went up to the community commander for
resolution. I mean, most of them Bob McDonald resolved for all six subcommunities. When
you don't have enough money to go around, everybody feels a little short, so we had some
very interesting meetings.
Q:
I didn't realize that General Ott would have a deputy particularly assigned for the
community--
A:
So did I. I should state that as I wore the three hats, I had three deputies or assistants, one for
each. I had a deputy community commander, a deputy brigade commander, and an assistant
Corps engineer, each one a lieutenant colonel. Otherwise I couldn't have pulled off my
responsibilities. In each case they were the person there daily. I was the one trying to provide
focus, direction, resolution, and carried the accountability and responsibility. They would go
down and interact with the staff. I didn't have to be at every staff meeting in the community.
The deputy community commander would work that staff every day and do the follow-up. He
was the one who would take those family disciplinary cases I talked about, and they would
focus up to him, hopefully for his resolution, prior to getting me involved.
But, again, the mayors didn't want to talk with him. They would include him in, but when
they sat down they wanted to talk to the boss, so then I would get involved. So, it worked
much like anything else. You try to work at the staff level where possible. Some things rise
up and have to be dealt with by the boss, and the boss in every case has to give direction, set
standards, articulate needs, fight the battles for resources and that sort of thing after the
staff's done their homework.
Q:
You talked about the relationships with the German community. I suppose it would be
inevitable that most of those issues would focus on the sort of rough edges of the interaction
between the American community and the German community. Is that the case? You
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