________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
the collective leadership in bringing up issues or commenting on things on the wide variety
of subjects that might be entertained. It's certainly a forum that one has to stand up and be
counted if it's your issue or it's an issue you're interested in or might go against you. It's one
where your ability at those crucial times might depend upon the credibility you have
established during other times and your willingness to be a part of and contribute to the
collective leadership there.
Q:
Earlier, when you were talking about the organization and referred to the Environmental
Office, we didn't really talk about specific issues during the period. I think from a couple of
sources that I was looking at--for example, air and water pollution--did you have enough
involvement with this to comment on some of these things?
A:
Not really. It was an office--I think bureaucratically the Army was trying to figure out where
it was on the environment. The Corps on the water resources, civil works side, was way out
in front, with General Clarke having said, "Let's get involved with the National
Environmental Policy Act and get out doing those kinds of things." From the standpoint of
an Army program, this was an embryo stage. We had an office, we were writing regulations,
but they were really early regulations from what you would find there now. We were trying to
figure out how the Army Staff could communicate with all of its installations in the field, tell
them what needs to be done, and what should our involvement be, and who should be doing
that involvement, and that sort of thing.
Q:
If I could go back to something I mentioned earlier, in 1979 did becoming a MACOM have
much immediate impact--was it seen as fairly important? Was it seen as a possible way of
helping with some of the ACE's military programs functional responsibilities at the time?
A:
I always thought it was important--wherever I was when it came about, I thought it was an
ideal move and would be important.
I don't recall any major strategies, I think, because the ACE's shop itself hadn't changed
much in its operating entity. From the standpoint that we had an overworked major general
and a colonel who operated then as his deputy but not having any executive director, we
moved to have two general officers and we'd get more involved, but we didn't have the
staffing to support us and had to pool our programming activity. We still were doing
essentially the same things--that is, the Army Staff part of things--as before the MACOM.
The MACOM was running the design and construction activities that had always been done
by those folks across the river. The fact that they were in a MACOM cleaned up the lines
from the standpoint of the Army. There were other aspects--it got the Chief of Engineers to
go to commanders meetings, and now he was a commander at the four-star conference. So, it
had those kinds of benefits, but in day-by-day operations it was not something that we spent a
lot of time on.
General Wray may have over in his Military Construction shop, but in the Office of the ACE
that was not a big ticket item. We were basically trying to sort out staff functions, whether it
was Army Staff or USACE staff, and not worrying about the rest of the command structure.
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