________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
that time, and throughout the period I retained my aggressive activity to try to make EForce
happen, networking throughout the Army.
At the same time, we were still fighting, I should also say, actions from there to support the
M9 ACE. Let me just digress and address the ACE first. There's nothing like messages from
the field, especially USAREUR, one-third of the Army, and the fighting part, to support
things. I had a call one day from Lieutenant General Max Noah that the ACE was in trouble
again and maybe I'd better get some message back. I was supposed to play racquetball at
Campbell Barracks at 5:00, and I knew General Otis daily played handball next door. So, I
ran over at 4:50 and caught him before he went onto the handball court, and said, "Sir, we
need to get a message back supporting the ACE, get the Army leadership, the secretariat,
behind it because it's on the cutting block again."
He said, "Fine, but I'm leaving here at about 6:15 and flying off. I'll be gone two days. So, if
you can write the message, I'll sign it."
So, I gave up my game of racquetball and ran back to my building, which was only 300 or
400 feet away, and we dashed out a message and got it over to his quarters about 6:10 so he
could sign it and send it on back.
In the meantime, I called up to try to get General Galvin to come on-line too. Brigadier
General Paul Cerjan was his executive officer at the time, and when I called up to SHAPE, I
found out that General Galvin was back in the Pentagon. So, I called back to the Pentagon
and got Paul Cerjan on the line and told him what the problem was. He said, "We'll get a
message from General Galvin if you can just get us a copy of General Otis's message."
So, we put General Galvin as another addressee on the message and got a copy to him so that
he could add his comments to it. So, both went into the Army Staff to support the M9 ACE. I
guess I just wish I had a nickel for every time that had to happen in my years at Belvoir and
USAREUR, that General Noah and I hooked up communications and tried to make the right
thing happen.
Back to EForce. General Saint was coming over with his III Corps to participate in
REFORGER in the fall of '87 up in the NORTHAG area, and I had talked with him before.
We'd briefed him on EForce. He was a solid supporter and really wanted to make it happen.
So, when III Corps came over, they brought the 2d Armored and the 1st Cavalry Divisions.
They were supported by Corps engineer battalions from V Corps and VII Corps. We worked
hard to get them both to work in the EForce configuration.
The commander of the 17th Engineer Battalion, with the 2d Armored Division, was Jack
O'Neil, and he made it happen in that division. The Corps engineer battalion supporting
them, the 317th, supported one maneuver brigade. They were a two-brigade division then,
and Jack O'Neil had his 17th Engineer Battalion with the other brigade. So, Jack O'Neil--
although he was still the division engineer--put himself down at the brigade headquarters.
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