Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Later on in the spring, we hosted General Snetkov and his delegation at Heidelberg for a
return visit. In this case, it was an overnight affair, and they came down, spent a night with
their mission in Frankfurt, and then came on to Heidelberg the next day.
Our focus for their visit was to prompt them to see lots of people, not to be insulated, and to
see our Army as it was. We let a lot of the visit be handled by our noncommissioned officers.
The Soviet Army did not have a noncommissioned officer Corps of substance that could do
the kinds of things like the rock-hard sergeant noncommissioned officer that is the backbone
of the American Army, that's always down there at the cutting edge, making things happen.
It doesn't exist in the Soviet Army.
Commander-in-Chief to Commander-in-Chief meeting in Heidelberg, West Germany, in
1989. From left to right, Major General Foley, Deputy Chief of Staff, Operations;
Lieutenant General Stotser, Deputy CINC; an interpreter; General Saint, CINC
USAREUR; Major General Kem, Deputy Chief of Staff, Engineer; and Major General
Joulwan, Commanding General, 3d Armored Division.
At every opportunity we allowed them to see how capable our noncommissioned officers
were, so they'd see the strength of the American Army. You don't just look at an officer or
look at a rifleman, but you recognize that noncommissioned officer strength and how
substantive it is.
After we had an introductory meeting over the green felt table--somebody said you always
had to have a green felt table--and had had a chance to dialogue a little bit, then General
Snetkov and General Saint had a commander-to-commander private meeting with
interpreters for about an hour.
Then we hopped aboard helicopters and flew down to the 3d Mech Division at Schweinfurt
to observe them doing daily activities. There we were met by the command sergeant major of
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