Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
installations in Europe as there was the need. So, that process had been streamlined quite
considerably.
Lieutenant General Tom Griffin, Chief of Staff of Allied Forces, Southern Europe, NATO's
command in Naples, found out that the Navy, who had command responsibility in the Naples
area, would not provide facilities, furniture, or appliances to U.S. service members, even
those renting apartments. You have to understand that in Europe it's different from the
United States. When somebody leaves an apartment, they take with them the sink and the
appliances. You don't rent it with the sinks in. So, for a young soldier to have to buy a sink,
where he's never going to have a use for it anyplace else, that was really a hardship. So,
appliances, refrigerators, those kinds of things we took care of out of the central office in
Giessen, as I mentioned.
Well, anyway, Tom Griffin called up and asked if we couldn't take care of the Army and Air
Force and Navy people down there. We did some quick staff work on that and agreed that we
could support it from Giessen, now all the way to Naples, Italy. Allied Forces, Southern
Europe, had to budget it and get the Navy to cough up some of their bucks to take care of the
costs, but we were not going to let soldiers be on their own with respect to appliances. So, we
then, as a priority, took things out of the stream and pushed it south to take care of our people
in Naples.
Q:
I thought we might go back and talk a little bit more about the director of engineering and
housing issues, the facilities engineering sorts of issues. Now, the DEHs reported to the
community commanders and to the Corps commanders and the 21st Support Command, I
guess. So, DCSENGR had sort of technical supervision and support in relation--
A:
It really wasn't supervision. We had program responsibility and the support activities that
went with that. With the program responsibility, of course, we had the bucks, and we would
have to be smart enough to know how to allocate them and that sort of thing. Then we had
some special support activities that we provided for people.
But, in fact, the DEH worked for the community commander. The community commander
reported to the Corps commander. The DCSENGR reported to the Commander in Chief, and
the Corps commander had his own DEH colonel, with his regional staff, which had more
intimate support and more support activities, and assistance teams, and that sort of thing to
work with.
Q:
So, the ISAE assistance teams had gone to the Corps support command?
A:
No, the Corps activities already had them too.
Q:
Oh, they already had them too.
A:
It was seen as a duplication, so General Otis had figured it was not needed at the USAREUR
headquarters level and left them down at the Corps level. So, that responsibility, then, was no
longer USAREUR's; it was the Corps'.
390
Previous Page
