Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
the Department of Defense to send messages to Belgium and the Netherlands saying we had
decided on sites in all three countries.
Once the decision was made, then I called and set up a meeting date and said, "We're coming
up. How about nominating 8 or 10 sites." Then we would fly to The Hague or wherever they
wanted to meet us; they would send a lieutenant colonel or major, and we'd go walking sites.
I'd take two or three people. We'd say, "That one, that one, that one," and would rank-order
them in priority. They'd come back and say, "No, there's too many communists in that area;
that'll be a major problem," or, "No, not in that place; too environmentally sensitive." We'd
maybe say, "Not in that place; the road network or rail network is not good enough."
Through that process we would winnow down the sites, oftentimes not having enough at the
end. We'd say, "Go back and get us some more." That's how we picked the sites, back and
forth, mostly dialoguing in my office, getting approvals and ratification. That was our modus
operandi. We'd try to go wrap it all up, and when people objected, we'd go get some higher-
up to break the objection or put pressure on them to make things happen.
Meanwhile, we're back trying to figure out with EUD how we're going to get the Germans to
build the division first set more quickly because they were dragging their feet. They were
saying, "Well, we'll get to it next year," and so we would then network around for pressure
to come down saying, "No, Germany, you've got to do it more quickly." We would call a
meeting in Bonn, fly up to Bonn with EUD, and we'd sit there and play the bad guys, saying,
"No, that's unsatisfactory, you've got to deliver it more quickly."
The German defense staff would say, "No, we can't. We've got to do this and this and this,
and you haven't done it." Then we'd do our part. We played that back and forth just to get
construction of the first POMCUS set going.
So, there was a lot of focused activity. Why did it go slowly? It was going slowly because
there was a lot of this kind of interaction necessary to make things happen. I mentioned my
organization at the start--I established a new Storage Branch. I got approval for eight more
positions, put two people in it, and got started right away so I could have somebody just to
keep the books on all of this.
I was now involved not only with the POMCUS sites but also with all the theater reserve
storage sites. Because we were increasing the number of divisions, we were also going to
have to have more theater reserve in the country to back them up with additional days of
supply. We were also going to have to have more ammunition, so we had to add ammunition
sites. So, I had a theater reserve program, an ammunition program, and the POMCUS
program, all having to do with storage--and I found our books floated.
By this, I mean, we would go to briefings and a DCSLOG staffer would brief and there
would be this requirement on this day, and two weeks later the requirement changed. I set up
the Storage Branch in the Office of the DCSENGR just to have our own focal point, to
become the bible, so to speak, of requirements that you could audit back to. DCSLOG was
still responsible for logistics materiel and ammunition procurement, but I kept the books on
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