Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
was appropriately prepared. I don't think I could have done more to be better prepared.
Although I will say I didn't really fully understand the breadth or the scope of my duties
when I arrived, but it only took me about one week to find out how broad those were. I think
my preparation for that was there. I just wasn't quite aware of the position responsibilities in
total.
General Kem (center) at his promotion to major general in July 1984.
On the left is Lieutenant General Joseph K. Bratton, Chief of Engineers,
and on the right is Ann Kem.
Q:
Which is pretty normal, wouldn't you think?
A:
It might be normal, but I think there has been a change in the role of the commandant over
these past several years, that General William R. Richardson at TRADOC and General Carl
Vuono at the Combined Arms Center really put into place--that is those things having to do
with the word "proponent." I had thought from outside and other assignments in the Corps
that the word "proponency" had to do with personnel proponency only. I found out that it
meant responsibility for the engineer force and the total Army in all aspects of doctrine; force
modernization, that is both force design and materiel modernization; training, both individual
and unit; and in personnel policy. General Richardson always said, "I want the commandant
of the Infantry School to be chief of his branch, Chief of Infantry. Well, we have a Chief of
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