Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Q:
Well, in that case, once they were assured that there wasn't going to be any net loss of
positions or something like that.
A:
That's right. When we went to Congressman Stan Parris and demonstrated it was a net gain
in people because of the relocation and other people would be moving to northern Virginia to
offset these leaving, that issue died down. We never had any senatorial interest pro or con.
Q:
Describe the efforts undertaken by your organization to promote the "Total Army" concept.
A:
Well, engineers know total Army like no one else knows total Army because 70 percent of
the combat engineers are in the reserve components. So, in fact, we pretty much do talk total
force. We talk about doctrine, of course, and you don't talk about which kinds of units--
who's going to fight that doctrine--but just talk units and how they fit into AirLand Battle.
When we start talking force structure and manning the force, then we very much talk about
and organize who's in the active force and who's in reserve components and who's going to
be available to reenforce a NATO or one of the other contingency plans. We have reserve
component advisers on our staff, one from the Army Reserve and one from the National
Guard, who participate in everything we do.
Our annual commanders conference is a total force commanders conference. We invite from
all three components. Most of the engineer general officers in the troop units are in the
reserve or guard and support that conference very well. We put them on the program--
usually Capstone, that is the interrelationship of units depending on mission theater for
deployment. One other aspect, of course, is that the engineer force right now is sending many
different battalions to Latin America, SOUTHCOM [Southern Command], to do engineer
work down there. The Engineer School is involved in that effort in publishing lessons
learned, making sure deploying units are prepared, and that sort of thing. FORSCOM's
involved in all components: active, guard, and reserve. This last year at our commanders
conference we had one session oriented on Latin America, headed by the active duty colonel
SOUTHCOM engineer, which had had briefings by battalion commanders from all three
components. We also had the USAREUR engineer talk, and then we had a session having to
do with engineer operations in the communications zone given by the commander of the
412th Engineer Command (Army Reserve), which included subordinate units that were
active, guard, and reserve. Then we followed it with another theater, southwest Asia, and the
416th Engineer Command (Army Reserve), which once again had subordinate active, guard,
and reserve units. So, we basically deal across the board of the total Army.
As we went into the Army's regimental system, we from the school and General Heiberg
always felt it should be total force. At the time the Army Reserve and the National Guard
were holding back. The Guard said, "Don't call us; we'll call you if we're interested." We
then went at the leadership of the Reserve and the National Guard in the person of Brigadier
General Dick Dean, who was an engineer in the Army Reserve, and said, "I don't know what
your problems are with the Army's regimental system when it comes to regiments." I think,
potentially, the Guard and Reserve may have wanted to avoid the great changes of flags--all
of that caused quite a commotion in the active force in the infantry, armor, and artillery. Once
we explained how the engineer regiment would be a whole branch concept--emphasizing
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