________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
To Vander Shaaf it was a superfluous position because, obviously, it was in the phone book.
I just gave one example. I mean, the whole thing was like that. His desk phone charts were
what guided him, and he'd make up his mind based on them. We really spent an awful lot of
time with some very good rationale for various things.
He'd ask, "Well, why does EUCOM have one?" I'd say, "Well, you've got to ask EUCOM
that. I mean, I know what mine does, and the Army assets, but what the EUCOM guy does in
coordinating the three, what do they need that for? Go ask them."
He asked what functions the DEHs did at the Corps headquarters versus USAREUR, and so
we told him. We explained how General Otis had taken all of the assistance teams out of
USAREUR. They now did that function at Corps. General Otis had already pulled out the
duplication between the two headquarters.
I think it went right over the top of him, or he didn't want to hear it, or he had his numbers in
his pockets and he had to come up with something. Everything that Chuck Fiala predicted
would happen, happened. Vander Shaaf went home and wrote his report anyway, and the
report said--I don't remember the number exactly--"take 420 spaces out of USAREUR
headquarters."
Q:
Out of the headquarters?
A:
He called it duplication. Or out of command headquarters elements, was the way it was put.
Not necessarily USAREUR headquarters, but the command headquarters offices. When it
came over for USAREUR comment, we commented. It was a cheap shot--he never found a
basis for his actions. I mean, we couldn't put his numbers together. There was no supporting
rationale that would explain why or where the "duplication" was found to exist.
Even though we were backed up by EUCOM and by the Department of the Army on our
position--I guess having advertised that he had come up with some cuts, Defense was bound
that some cuts were going to be taken. Because they were overseas and that was where they
wanted to make a point with Congress, the cuts were taken. So, we had to cut those people
out of the headquarters offices. To do that, it fell now to General Saint and his Chief of Staff,
me.
At the same time, General Saint had his own thoughts about duplication and the fact that
certain layers ought to come out, specifically in nonappropriated fund activities. You need to
remember that he had previously been the commander of the 1st Armored Division and the
community commander of that region, reporting to VII Corps. So, he had the natural
inclination of a division commander that the Corps was all screwed up and didn't quite have
it right, and why were they between him and the great resourcer, USAREUR? He had a
concept, that later has been implemented, for converting and getting rid of certain layers of
things so commanders had regions that they were responsible for, and then they could go
straight to the resourcer and get things, and they didn't need extra policy guidance from a
Corps level headquarters, and maybe the Corps ought to be by themselves.
417
Previous Page
