________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
to train with, so therefore they don't do it very well when they're there. So, they'll be able to
focus on a different role now that'll help their training so they'll be more effective.
So, the opportunity is that EForce solves so many things. It solves getting people broader
experience, more people with division experience, more engineers knowing what's going on,
solves doctrine, solves training, solves communications, and it works now. We've shortened
distances from 70 kilometers to 20 kilometers between units. It solves maintenance because
we allow the DCSRM the resources to take care of the engineer battalions. It solves supply
because we provide for barrier hauls that've been a problem all along. So, it solves so
much--that's the great opportunity.
Now, Bill Reno's challenge is going to be to continue to do all of these various things as I
have, balancing the books so you can open the schoolhouse every day with quality people
teaching and still get the Department of Combat Development to keep the systems going.
We're trying to get this there. So, basically, I borrowed time to create and drive on with E
Force, but because I didn't sell it to final acceptance decision in a reasonable time and it's
still there, that's become a burden because other things are still back burnered that deserve
time. So, it's becoming more and more painful every day we don't get that concept approved.
So, his challenge will be to get it as quickly as possible.
Q:
So, he's going to really be the one that has to take it now and sell it to the Department of the
Army, to senior staff?
A:
That's right.
Q:
How much experience has he had with it? Being in TRADOC, he must have had a little bit.
A:
He's been briefed by us several times. We had him in here and he was briefed thoroughly on
it before. He's had a lot of troop experience, not only engineer, but he was the G3 of the 1st
Infantry Division when it came to REFORGER '77, which is the experience that is most
vivid in my mind because I was the Corps engineer in VII Corps and the 7th Engineer
Brigade commander in that REFORGER exercise, and that's when we wrote up that
experience considerably in the Engineer magazine. So, he was there at that time too. He will
have just been to the NTC this weekend, where he'll get a feeling for what's wrong with
engineer support to maneuver in that realistic battlefield laboratory. I think he's well
prepared by experience and background and has an intuitive feel for what's right and what's
wrong. It'll be a matter of becoming comfortable with all the eaches and how it is and that
sort of thing.
Q:
You would very much have loved to have seen this in place before you left, wouldn't you?
A:
I would've loved to have concept approval before I left. It would've been nice to have done
that.
Let me say that out of REFORGER '77 we pushed to do two things--mechanize the Corps
engineer battalions and, second, to get the brigade engineer established as a position. That
was in 1977. As we sit here today in 1987, the next to last battalion in Europe is
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