________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
work--high-stress, high-intensity kind of work--because once somebody needed to know
something, it had to come very fast.
General Saint was very smart, starting that process and setting it out in that manner, so the
homework could be done early because always the questions came and they never included
sufficient assumptions to provide a valid point to start. The people wanted the answer
anyway, and you always knew you were going to be responsible for your answer, even
though the context may not quite be right in the way the question was put.
Q:
Right.
A:
So, he set this up, and he set Darryl aside to work the problem. He was the expert, and he had
straight line access to General Saint so that it could be kept rather close-hold so the whole
world didn't know because that would have had implications to various communities and
impacted the morale of our folks. Yet, the planning was done and packaged to be used.
Q:
Can you say about what time that started? Not an exact day, of course, but spring of '89,
summer? Spring of '89?
A:
Spring of '89.
Q:
Okay. Other issues you'd noted for your period as Chief of Staff?
A:
I think we've hit most of them as we've talked through. I think another fine action that took
place early on was also rather a good example of how General Saint worked, and that was the
company level computer. It had long been an Army issue as to whether the company should
have a computer or not. The opposing view was that with a computer the company
administration would be tied to the orderly room, with the first sergeant supervising a clerk
on the computer when the first sergeant was supposed to be out with the company training
and not tied to administration. During General Wickham's time as Chief of Staff of the
Army, it had been an issue that was debated at the highest levels, and he had said, "No
company computer."
Well, General Saint was one who believed that the way the computer had evolved to the lap
top, that there was benefit to have a company computer in order to help the first sergeant. He
could take his clerk to the rifle range and they could enter the people's scores right there
rather than having people doing pencil log work, keeping records, and then bringing that
back to have it laboriously entered on a roster. He thought there was a value in having a
computer to take out to training or whenever.
He also thought that to obtain the potential value of a company level computer, it shouldn't
be something that was going to be dictated by computer experts in Washington or
personnelists. We already had all kinds of automation with the personnel system and what
was going to happen at battalion level, and the personnel team wasn't working--it was
placing additional demands on the company.
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