Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
They were like other districts and divisions in the Corps, except they had a very large
military customer and a very spread command. So, I thought they did a super job, and I
thought they were most professional.
Q:
Other DCSENGR issues that we need to talk about?
A:
That kind of takes me out of the DCSENGR category, I think.
Chief of Staff, USAREUR
Q:
In June, I think it was of 1988, you went from the position of DCSENGR to Chief of Staff,
USAREUR. This is about the time of the change of commanders, right? About the same
time.
A:
It was exactly the time--
Q:
Exactly?
A:
--because General Otis and General Fiala retired at the same ceremony on the parade field
there, and General Saint took command and I became Chief of Staff.
Q:
General Ray came up?
A:
General Ray came up to be the DCSENGR at that time. That's right.
Q:
Well, new job, new commander. Was that a pretty tough transition, or was it, by virtue of
your experience there, not so bad?
A:
It was not too tough a transition for me because I'd been there a year and watched General
Fiala and General Otis be involved in numerous issues facing the command--the Apache
helicopters in Wiesbaden, the noise at Wildflecken, and the Vander Shaaf committee had just
come through that we'll talk about in a minute. And, oh, a number of the major issues
involved in the REFORGER exercises, all of those kinds of things. So, I really had a feeling
for what was going on.
I also knew General Saint from the past. We had been in the same company at West Point,
and we came to Europe in 1976 for our colonel commands, his the 11th Armored Cav
Regiment and mine the 7th Engineer Brigade. Immediately before that we had gone to
Monterey together for language school, and we'd been together there three weeks. We'd
known each other here and there, and I'd seen him at Fort Hood when he commanded III
Corps. A lot of our year at Headquarters, USAREUR, '78'79, after the commands, we were
there together.
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