________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
His organization was up, functional and running but not fully staffed, and there were still a
lot of rough edges between what they were to do and what remained at Campbell Barracks.
By that I mean some people were reluctant to let some things go out of Campbell Barracks.
The people out at ISAE were putting together an organization and picking up the ball and
weren't all quite sure they wanted all these various missions and issues because they were
trying to manage what they could handle and add to it.
I don't remember any major problem. I just give that rundown as the place where we were in
the maturity of the organization transition.
To get the colonel position to command ISAE, two separate divisions of the headquarters
were combined. DCSENGR previously had an Installations Division and a Construction
Division. They were combined into one division called Installations and Construction
Division. That's the one that I took over. Jim Van Loben Sels was my predecessor.
In addition, there was a Facility Engineering Division, which was responsible for those kinds
of activities. There was also a Programming, Budgeting Office. When I said the Facility
Engineering Division, I meant the Engineering and Housing Division. Colonel Fred Wegley
had that, and he had two hats, one for engineering, one for housing.
There was a Real Estate Division. George Fuentes had been there for years, a civilian and a
great person.
When I mentioned the Programming and Budgeting Office, I meant the Management
Division, which is what we called it, which had a programming side and a budgeting side. In
addition, with that also was a Military Engineering Office. They worked with the DCSOPS
[Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations and Plans] on engineering troop matters. All that was
under the Management Division, Lieutenant Colonel Bob Vermillion, and then Lieutenant
Colonel Bob Lee had it at the time.
In the Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer's office, besides Major General Vald Heiberg there
was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Ed Keiser. Charley McNeill, who commanded
ISAE, also acted as Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer. Within the province of the
way Headquarters, USAREUR, acted, and acts today, great power is vested in the assistant
deputy chiefs of staff, as they're called. There are the deputy chiefs and the assistant deputy
chiefs who carry the stick for the boss and usually had sign-off authority the way General
Groves ran things then, continuing to today.
So, that's basically the organization.
Q:
Now, what were the responsibilities of your Installations and Construction Division?
A:
Well, as I related, I brought two different parts together, so let me talk about them. Our
construction mission was focused on new construction, not execution. That is, if European
Division was designing it and was going to go out and be construction, ISAE, the Installation
Support Activity, Europe, would have the interaction with EUD. That was one of those
things where staff responsibility was divided. We in Installations and Construction Division
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