________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
General Kem (left), Commandant of the Engineer School, congratulated his son,
Second Lieutenant John Kem, on his graduation from the Engineer Officer Basic
Course on 27 November 1985.
Q:
You were talking about having talked to other people about the concept and getting opinions.
A:
The fourth battalion. As we put the concept together, we had kept it to just the three
battalions that would be with a maneuver element forward. General Richardson felt that we
ought to consider a battalion who'd work in the division's rear as well. We put together an
option that did that, took that up to him and recommended that we not proceed that way, that
we felt that there was no flexibility forward. When you were committed in the forward
brigade area, you were committed. We could retain some battalions at Corps who would
work in the division area, rear area, on line of communication work, and that would provide
that kind of flexibility.
Forward in the brigade area we needed that habitually OPCON association of engineers. We
needed the ability to be agile like our infantry and armor counterparts and we had to have
units that were fully agile and could move with them. We saw two different kinds of effort,
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