Deputy Assistant Chief of Engineers cont'd

EP 870-1-65
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________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem

I really don't recall how it happened, but it was rather a natural progression because, having

been the Chief of Installations and Construction in Europe, dealing with Military Programs

and all of the major activities going on, all the trips I was making back to the Army Staff to

brief them on various activities for which the ACE is one of the major players, the fact that I

could go in and be the Deputy ACE was a very natural progression.

So, now whether Major General Bill Read asked for me, Major General Vald Heiberg

volunteered me sometime when they were talking, or what, I don't know. I don't know which

one of them mentioned it to me first, but I had known I wanted to come back to the

Washington area.

We owned a house in northern Virginia and I knew that's where I wanted to serve, in the

Pentagon somewhere or in USACE. It seemed to be the natural step, that I certainly had

something to offer Major General Bill Read, the ACE and our point man for a lot of things

on the Army Staff. He would be able to get somebody who was involved in some of the high-

visibility things, like rapid reinforcement of NATO, the master restationing plan, a lot of the

initiatives that I talked about before, and that Lieutenant General Groves was pushing now

that he was back in the Office of the Secretary of Defense. Those initiatives were going to the

Hill and the committees were talking about things, and General Bill Read, as the ACE, was

the testifier for those committees. So, I would certainly bring some on-the-ground, hands-on

experience with many high-visibility initiatives plus knowledge of the regular programming

responsibility for construction and the construction program in Europe.

So, I really don't know who mentioned it to me first or how. It just all happened because it

was natural. It might have been the assignment officer; it might have been Bill Read; it might

have been Vald Heiberg.

You hadn't worked with Read before, had you?

No, I never had. I had first met him when, as a colonel assignment officer, I made that very

first briefing for General Clarke on OPMS, and he had asked me to brief a couple of the new

brigadiers that were in town. One of them was Jim Kelly, another one was Bill Read. So, I

met him there, and I hadn't seen him, really, since my year in the Office of the DCSENGR.

Each time we'd come back, we'd go in and brief the ACE.

I have an organization chart. Maybe a good place to start would be to talk about exactly what

you did as Deputy ACE, the various things that you got involved in. I have some specifics to

bring out. One of the things--well, one of the things would be your role with testifying on

the Military Construction, Army, program.

Okay. Well, let me just first say that I started off very rapid fire because I reported in on the

date that Bill Read had said would be acceptable, and when I reported in he said, "Well, I'm

going on leave to Europe for 30 days, starting tomorrow." So, that's how I started--being the

acting ACE for a month. That certainly does accelerate your learning curve because you're

now the principal at all the meetings. Let me just talk about my duties, and I'll start off with

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