Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer, USAREUR
Q:
Well, let's turn to your next assignment, '78'79. You were, at the beginning of the period,
Chief of the Installations and Construction Division in the Office of the Deputy Chief of
Staff, Engineer, at Headquarters, USAREUR. I'll begin the way we've begun these other
assignments. How did you get that job? How did it come about that you went to Heidelberg
and to the Office of the DCSENGR.
A:
I guess in the great scheme of things that people at Headquarters, USAREUR, look around,
see what positions are going to be open the next year, and figure out how they're going to fill
those positions and with whom. They have available those people coming out of command,
as in my case, and then whichever they can't fill from within theater, they get from the
replacement stream from the Military Personnel Center. That's how it worked, and I was
picked, I suppose, by General Lou Prentiss, the then DCSENGR, and General Dick Groves,
who was the Chief of Staff. I'm sure they laid the slate before General Blanchard for final
approval of many different positions with me in that position. That's how I got it.
Q:
So, the two years down as commander, 7th Engineer Brigade, was a pretty standard two-year
command tour at that level?
A:
It changed while I was there. When I went over, the command tour was a year and a half. The
Army changed that, for longer continuity, to a two-year tour. The day that policy came out, I
petitioned General Ott for an extension. He sent a message back to the States asking that I be
extended for the full 24-month tour, and it was approved.
Q:
That was pretty good timing for your assignment, wasn't it?
A:
Good timing.
Q:
Got to stay on six more months.
A:
That's right.
Q:
Well, the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer, had just undergone some changes in
staff in '77. I guess the year before you got there, there was a reorganization of the whole
USAREUR staff as well as the DCSENGR staff. Maybe you could talk a little bit about how
the DCSENGR staff worked and how the Installations and Construction Division fit into the
DCSENGR organization.
A:
Well, like all organizations, the USAREUR headquarters keeps changing over time. The
basic changes from Staff '77 were in place, at least structurally, when I arrived. Now, as part
of that, it was felt that policy, programming, budgeting should be in the headquarters at
Campbell Barracks--that is, Headquarters, USAREUR. Execution and implementation
should be in the field and at the USAREUR level for facilities that would be vested in a new
organization called ISAE, the Installation Support Activity, Europe. Colonel Charlie McNeill
was assigned as the first ISAE commander.
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