Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
The master restationing plan was well developed as a concept. We were nearing the end of
the relocation of the three headquarters in Campbell Barracks. That was well on the way and
most of the arguments had gone by the wayside. So, I had a good feeling of satisfaction, but
it had been a long, tiring year.
Also, I really enjoyed my two years in command of the 7th Engineer Brigade. That was just a
top-drawer assignment, working with super people. I really liked General Ott and interacting
with the division commanders and assistant division commanders and all the colonels and
others that over the years I interacted with more and more. I mean, Colonel Butch [Crosbie
E.] Saint, later CINCUSAREUR, was commander of the 11th Armored Cav, then on the
USAREUR staff at that time. Major General Bob Dacey was on the USAREUR staff as a
colonel. Walt Kastenmayer, in DCSLOG, was later to make brigadier. When I first arrived,
the Chief of Staff, 3d Mech Division, was Colonel Jack Galvin [later the Supreme Allied
Commander, Europe]; Bob Elton was the Assistant Deputy Chief of Staff; and Glenn Otis
[later the Commander in Chief, U.S. Army, Europe] came over at that time as a major
general to command the 1st Armored Division. Lieutenant Colonel Ed Leland was G3, 3d
Mech Division, and is a three star at EUCOM now. You just go on and on of people who we
were involved with. Of course, I worked for Major General Vald Heiberg and Major General
Dick Groves, people that I came back and worked with and for later on. It was a superb
experience and I really enjoyed it.
My family really enjoyed Europe. I still managed to get away for a skiing vacation here or
there and to take advantage of space A travel and the Air Force's C130s to England and
Spain during those three years. So, it was a very enjoyable experience. I've always enjoyed
assignment to Europe, and that certainly was a measure of why I sought the assignment
leaving Fort Belvoir later to go back as the DCSENGR.
Deputy Assistant Chief of Engineers
Q:
You mentioned about finding out about your next assignment while you were still in Europe,
and I wondered if you could reflect a little bit on your selection for the Deputy ACE job and
the factors that you see in getting the assignment.
A:
With every assignment there's some negotiations with the assignment officer. By the time
you reach colonel, many people get involved and the assignment officer's working with
various folks. I don't quite know how it happened or what came first, really. As I mentioned,
it was such an intense year, and years are very short in terms of assignments. I reported to the
job in DCSENGR, Europe, in the summer of '78 and knew already in January, February of
'79 that they were putting together the slate for the coming year of assignments. So, I'd only
been there five or six months and already somebody's thinking about where I was going to be
reassigned. I knew I was coming back to the States and was not going to stay in Europe
another year.
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