________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
here. Materiel guys would move out there. That split causes inefficiencies. The idea was that
he could leave an assistant commandant here; he'd have a deputy assistant commandant
there, and that would make that work. Now that period that we planned for is stretching out
because the difference between 1 October and 1 March is only six months. We could see how
we could live under that kind of split office for that period. If that extends on through
October or later, because we still don't have that fixed date, then we have to go back and
challenge the assumptions that led to the terms of our detailed planning, and we will have to
adjust that.
What we have not been able to do is make that movement. We've played a few what-if drills;
we know what the considerations are, but until we can fix that date we're reluctant to change
our plan and fix onto it. Otherwise we may be fixing and refixing the plan. So, yes, we think
we're pretty firm, but we'd really like to firm up the rest of it.
Q:
Somebody else, in this place, is calling the shot that affects everything you've got planned?
A:
That's right. Kansas City District's construction.
Q:
What happens if Congress is not going to allow reprogramming? I'm just giving you a what-
if. What do you do then?
A:
Well, my view is that we don't move. We need a school facility at Fort Leonard Wood.
Q:
Would you think about rescoping the building or something?
A:
The implications really are that we would have to redesign the building. We've scoped the
current building. Things have been taken out that were in the original plan. The decision has
been made to completely redesign the unaccompanied officers housing, so that will come
later. If we build the academic building and the classroom facility, right now the first officers
that go out there won't go into the unaccompanied officers quarters. They'll be billeted
somewhere else, hotel or motel, for the first year or so. So, it's already not the optimum.
We've scoped with Fort Leonard Wood the existing buildings.
If we don't get a reprogramming, we have to go back and redesign a new facility. Redesign is
a year or two-year process, so we certainly will have a major break in the schedule. If that
takes place, then the idea is we'd have to redesign the facility and then we'd pick a new date
and do it all over again. Meanwhile, we're sitting down here with a lot of empty positions
and it'd be a major disruption. I see no other alternative but to redesign the buildings.
Q:
There's no way you can do anything else.
A:
Philosophically and logically and the only way we should have it is that we shouldn't move
until we've got facilities out there that are appropriate to the mission. Those facilities include
an academic building and a headquarters building. Headquarters is not just the headquarters
as we know it at Abbott Hall here. What we're going to do is put the other directorates that
aren't teaching directorates--that is, Combat Developments, the Directorate of Training and
Doctrine Development, the Directorate of Evaluation and Standardization--that are so spread
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