________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
when one speaks of USAREUR--that in wartime it is not a fighting organization but the
theater Army organization. CINCUSAREUR moves up and commands the Central Army
Group, a NATO command, to fight the war. USAREUR headquarters, under command of the
Deputy Commander in Chief, becomes the theater Army in support of all U.S. activities in
theater.
Consequently, the 412th Engineer Command out of Vicksburg, a reserve brigade with
multiple battalions all over the United States under various groups, was the theater engineer
command element. Because they were a reserve activity and our planning was an active
activity, over time, we had a larger military engineer section in the headquarters. The 412th
Engineer Command had a liaison element in Europe, with a person from their headquarters,
and we then set up rather good working relationships with the commander of the FORSCOM
units and their staffs, so that when they'd come over for various exercises--and they were
over there a lot with the annual REFORGER exercises--we had a link.
Q:
Well, prior to your getting there, the USAREUR staff had been undergoing, and maybe
continued to undergo, quite a few changes. I guess one of the pressures was to reduce the size
of the USAREUR staff, coming from Congress or from Washington.
A:
Yes, probably I could get into that a little later.
Q:
Okay.
A:
I mean, if we take it chronologically.
Q:
Okay.
A:
I had a year as DCSENGR, and then a year as Chief of Staff.
Q:
Okay.
A:
When I arrived in '87 as the DCSENGR, replacing Scott Smith, General Otis had made the
decisions to reduce the staff, and ISAE elimination was one aspect of that. Scott Smith had
already implemented that. So, although the bumps hadn't all been smoothed out, basically the
people were in place in the new locations, or had been done away with, or moved, and
responsibilities were shifted.
So, I really picked up an organization that was a going organization, albeit in its changed
style from the Otis changes. During that year there were not more changes. I sense that Scott
Smith acted quickly and maybe was ahead of some of the other staff agencies who were still
changing, but from my viewpoint, in my year as DCSENGR, there were not more changes.
However, then, in the summer of '88, General Otis retired and General Fiala retired. General
Saint came over as the new Commander in Chief, and I became the Chief of Staff. During
that year we had had changes due to a couple of different things, the driving part of that being
General Saint and his approach on how things were to be done. One other aspect of it was
something that happened back in the last months of General Otis's and General Fiala's reign.
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