________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
You know, when you pass laws like Senator [Pete] Domenici did that say you can't close an
office so close to someplace else, or Senator [Fritz] Hollings, South Carolina, did for the
Charleston folks, or [Dan] Rostenkowski in Chicago--I mean, there's a big guy everywhere.
Q:
Right.
A:
At one time, in the Ohio River Division, we had both the Senate majority leader and the
Senate minority leader in our area of operations, Senators Howard Baker and Robert Byrd.
Congressman Whitten was there with the TennTom in Mississippi. We had some good
folks.
So, if anybody wants to make sure nobody objects, you're never going to get there. So, the
Corps had a plan, and it was in the base realignment and closure plan and the right place, and
I think the Bush and Clinton administrations and Congress lost an opportunity. It had been
done right.
Q:
They lost the appetite to implement it?
A:
Yes.
Q:
One quick question. When the Central Division study with the division engineers was
ongoing, about what's the time frame on that?
A:
I would suppose it was--I left in the summer of '84--in the winter of '83'84. I might be
wrong.
Q:
We might not find any record of that. You said it was a quiet one.
A:
It's probably in General Heiberg's personal files.
Commanding General, U.S. Army Engineer Center and Fort Belvoir1
Q:
In the summer of 1984 you became commanding general of the Army Engineer Center and
Fort Belvoir. Could you have been better prepared for the job?
A:
I don't really think so. I believe my background of assignments, experience, the fact that I
had come up through the ranks and served in almost all kinds of engineer battalions, had
served in both heavy divisions and light airborne divisions, had served at Corps and at
division, commanded a combat heavy battalion in Vietnam, and worked at not only a troop
unit level but also at major Army command level and Department of the Army level on
staffs, that I really knew how the Army worked, how units worked, and how things needed to
be done, knew a lot about engineers and training and professional development, and therefore
1
Interview conducted by Dr. John T. Greenwood on 29 June and 13 July 1987 at Fort Belvoir, Virginia.
327
Previous Page
