Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
I guess there's one thing that's been very difficult, and that is to get people to stop using the
term the "engineer regiment." Once again, it's sort of those myths, it's hard to put down.
"Oh, we have an engineer regiment." No, we really don't. We really have the engineer Corps.
Is it a new Corps? No, it's the same Corps of Engineers, but we're now organized as an
official part of the Army's regimental system. So, we're not an engineer regiment; we're an
engineer Corps in the Army's regimental system. That's consistently what is said, but it's
very difficult to say and, too, we print programs and other things that continually talk about
the engineer regiment.
Q:
One of the things that we need to work out is to provide the Corps of Engineers, as part of the
Army's regimental system, with historical support because you don't have it at Fort Leonard
Wood.
A:
It's interesting when you say that. The British have the institute. They have an organization
that is all financed out of soldier pay. They take two and one-half days' pay from every
officer every year and a certain amount from the soldier; I think it's half a day, it might be a
day's pay. That is the income into the regiment to run what they can do, but out of that they
do a lot of things. They publish their magazine, they maintain the rosters, they buy the
regimental silver--and they have some wonderful silver that stays in the regimental mess at
Chatham. They also run their own welfare system for hardships in later life; in other words
like Army emergency relief. All of that is done by a small group; I don't think there's more
than 30 or 34 folks in offices there. So, they carry support to a much higher degree than even
ours.
I didn't mention that we have picked, of course, the home of the Corps in the regimental
system is Fort Belvoir until we move the school. So, the home of the Corps is the school,
wherever it's located.
Q:
As it should be. The problem is with the Chief of Engineers and all of that. I don't know if
it's ever going to be resolved. I guess a new generation.
Can you describe a typical day in your position? I know this'll probably be almost
impossible.
A:
No, I really can't because there are several kinds of days. They're the kind of days that I get
so seldom, and that involves being able to get out and go visit training, advanced course
students, or basic course students. A lot of my days are days where I go get on an airplane,
first thing in the morning, and go flying off to Fort Leavenworth or Fort Monroe and come
back two days later; so those days are completely away from this place. If you would want
me to describe a typical day at Fort Belvoir and the realm of what kind of activities we have
here, basically, I come in at 7:15 and at 8:00 we have a morning update for 30 minutes where
I get the command group together--the assistant commandant, chief of staff, the command
sergeant major, the public affairs officer, and the Secretary of the General Staff--and we
would review the day to come, major events coming and so forth. It is a quick runaround,
don't try to make decisions and solve things; it's not decision briefs. Basically we're looking
to make sure we're all on-line and things are getting taken care of. It almost never went more
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