________________________________________________________________________Richard S. Kem
Q:
One of the end-of-tour standard questions has to do with preparation, and I think that's a little
hard in terms of the deputy position to ask, but maybe there's some particular assignments--
you've sort of been indicating that--that maybe now, looking back over the past year, would
have helped with the perspective that you have to have.
A:
No, I have some things to say about that.
Q:
Okay.
A:
Beyond the particular positions that I had that allowed me to interact, working in our
headquarters, recognizing that the Chief of Engineers has two jobs: Chief of Engineers and
Commander, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He's always moving between one and the other,
and I, as deputy, move between one and the other--that is, the Deputy Chief in an Army
Staff role, or the Deputy Commander, doing the major Army command kind of issues.
I think there are some things that are essential in that preparation, and I think any success I
might have had comes from that, the experiences I have had. I think if anybody else comes
without some of those experiences, they might be less effective or might have difficulty
picking them up. Of course, that's also dependent on a person's nature, and not everybody
has the same experiences.
One of those is on the other side of the house. On the Chief of Engineers' side of the house,
the Army Staff side, I think a person really needs to have experience in the Pentagon, in
fighting the battles of how the Army does business, and I'm talking about POMs and
budgets, and dealing with the Director of Program Analysis and Evaluation, and getting
down into the real, tough, infighting on issues. So, you know how to play to win; know you
have to get deep down, do your homework, and be tough in the trenches if you're going to
win those battles. At the same time, you also have to know how to deal and build credibility.
A person who plays in the Army Staff arena has to be credible, has to be smart, has to do
things very timely, and has to have a sense for how to balance all those things so that you're
there at the moment before the decision is going to be made, anticipate what's going to
happen, figure out who the influencers are, and network those influencers before an action.
Also you can even be tough and go for the jugular when necessary and somebody's picking
on your people, to make sure your people aren't picked on, and you don't lose because of
that.
So, a person needs to understand the Department of the Army's staff arena, and it's a tough
arena. You can get overwhelmed and overrun if you're not playing it tough. I think my
background, having come up from a major Army command--that is, Headquarters,
USAREUR, in 1978'79 where I was involved in working with the Army Staff--and then
coming to the ACE's shop where I sat on the Program Budget Committee as the Deputy ACE
and experienced all the infighting around those programs, gave me that preparation.
Then, subsequently, as commandant of the Engineer School at Fort Belvoir, where I fought
Army force structures and systems battles--I mean a never-ending fight to sustain structure,
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