Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
spent at Headquarters, USACE, but I would bet that's the part of the job we do less well than
the other part of the job."
My reaction back was, "Now that you mention it, as I think back to my time as commander
of the Ohio River Division, I would sense that's right. I felt then that your attention was on
Washington level things, and I had difficulty attracting your attention to deal with me on
things. You surely sent out a message saying, `You only get this number of spaces; you will
do this.' Trying to get a meaningful dialogue and influence was difficult."
So, it really is important to understand, you are the Headquarters, USACE. That's 83 percent
of our role, that work. You need to work in putting out the right policy, doing the right
programming, the right kind of resource allocation, the right kind of anticipation to direct,
lead, manage this worldwide organization called USACE.
So, from all that, I thought the workshop accomplished what it was intended--that is, the
interaction so that I get to know the chiefs better. I thought I got a big value out of that.
Second, I thought we probably did some illuminating work that was of benefit to all of us.
Q:
It was an approach that hadn't been taken before, in terms of sitting down and trying to look
at that, and I think the comment that you made was that, you know, from below, we don't
look like a corporate headquarters, or are we acting like a MACOM, and what does it mean,
to act like a MACOM?
There's probably more to be done on that as an outgrowth of that session, I think. More
sensitizing. Has there been an effort to carry on that kind of thinking in terms of attention to
the MACOM headquarters' role in the months and the years ahead?
A:
No, I don't think so. I have used the occasion to articulate that in the senior leaders
conference and at other kinds of affairs. When I got into the automation business that I was
involved with during the year, I figured that in that case we were definitely acting in the
MACOM headquarters' role, and therefore we needed to do headquarters kinds of things for
the command. Others may have not known or understood that aspect of it, but to me, having
gone through the transition thing, my recognition was that this action would involve that part
of the USACE world, and we've got to do those necessary actions, even though we were
responding to Bob Page, of course, who was a staffer.
I was really doing Headquarters, USACE, things, but that would cross over the line to the
Deputy Chief's role when I'd go see Bob Page to present.
Q:
Did you share the results of that session with General Hatch?
A:
Yes, much like I described to you before. I walked in and chatted with him and told him what
we'd done.
Q:
Maybe it helped. I think, from the questionnaire, the interviews that happened beforehand,
and you were talking--there was a situation between the deputy and the Chief of Staff.
That's one of the real things that came out, and perhaps that was a frustration over the feeling
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