________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
A:
It was already going on when I arrived. We had the first dedication while I was there. I
believe it was at Mainz. It was controversial with the Germans. Some others were put up at
Wildflecken.
We visited the first ones. They looked pretty good. I guess people said they wouldn't hold up.
I'd like to go over and see them today and see what really happened. Again, although
USAREUR remained interested in the execution parts of these programs, it had passed
beyond our programming window, you see. The big thing that we did was prepare for the
next year. Then once it was in execution, we felt comfortable that EUD was going to execute
it. We would then allow EUD to do the construction, and they were tied in very closely down
at the installation level. Maybe every now and then there was something where somebody
would have to go out and work something between the two, but basically, that was execution,
and EUD took care of that very nicely.
Q:
Was it during the time that you were there that the Armed Forces Recreation Center [AFRC]
at Garmisch, the hotel, was that the controversy?
A:
That's a big story, the recreation center and the hotel. Before I left to go over there, I was
asked to come visit the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Financial Management of the
Army, then Michael Stone [later Secretary of the Army]. He talked to me about the
importance of the recreation center and a new hotel at Garmisch, and that there was some
consternation about USAREUR fighting the problem. The thought was that when I got over
there, I certainly ought to make sure things worked out all right. There weren't a lot of facts
with that. Then I met also with Judy Miller, who worked in in the Office of the Assistant
Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs in the nonappropriated side of the
house and was working on this issue. So, I had some advanced inkling that it was a sensitive
subject.
When I got there, I found out two things. It was very sensitive and controversial, primarily in
the interactions between the headquarters, that is, Department of the Army and USAREUR.
That it was well under way, the hotel aspects of it, in that General Bill Ray, EUD, had
already held a design competition, been out working through the German authorities with
different architect/engineer firms, with models and everything else, trying to select a design.
The parameters of how many rooms, and this and that, were already established, some being
specified back here by the Army's Community and Family Support Center, the
nonappropriated fund command that was headed by Major General Bob Joyce, who,
incidentally, had been with me as a fellow action officer in Colonels Division, Officer
Personnel Directorate, years before.
It was quite controversial, and it was a real tug-of-war between General Joyce, who wanted
to run the AFRC, and General Otis, who had the feeling of any good commander that the
person that can best take care of his troops is the person there with them, and Garmisch and
Berchtesgaden and all the AFRC had always worked under the USAREUR commander. The
implications were that it was going to be a direct chain back to Joyce and the Under Secretary
of the Army.
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