Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
I was the USAREUR Chief of Staff and was the senior two star on that staff. The
Commander in Chief says, "I don't want to talk to the DCSOPS every morning; I talk to the
Chief of Staff every morning. The DCSOPS can talk to the Chief of Staff. I let the Chief of
Staff run the staff. I don't interact, direct, one or the other, unless the Chief of Staff sends
him in to see me." Here in USACE we have a colonel level Chief of Staff/executive director
because he, too, is Chief of Staff of the headquarters element and also executive director for
the Chief of Engineers in his staff role. He would funnel a lot of things through the ACE
when they'd come through the Army Staff.
Then we have this direct relationship of the Director of Civil Works with the Assistant
Secretary for Civil Works because of the way that works, it's so close to Congress. With
these powerful, functional components and program directors, our colonel Chief of Staff
starts from a position of weakness unless he's got guts and fortitude and a lot of ability.
Al Genetti really has operated as a Chief of Staff, and I think earned everybody's plaudits for
that this year.
Q:
The new Chief of Staff comes out of the Pentagon arena?
A:
Yes, comes out of that arena. When I was in the ACE's shop, Bob Herndon was a lieutenant
colonel action officer in DCSOPS trying to get the NTC under way. Thankless job. He did a
great job. He won the Pace award as the outstanding action officer on the Army Staff there.
Now we have him. He knows our organization. He's been the Jacksonville District Engineer,
so he knows what happens in the field. He knows how to make things happen on the Army
Staff. He's been a very effective executive director to the ACE, so he knows the Program
Budget Committee and Select Committee and what's important.
Now he's going to be here as Chief of Staff. I think he'll come in and there will be some
differences. There always are, but he'll really know how things work. He'll be a good one.
Q:
Is there anything more you'd like to say about the ACE's office and how that fits into the
scheme of things? I know you mentioned the Director of Civil Works and the Assistant
Secretary, but sometimes there seems to be tensions, or whatever, between Military Programs
and the ACE's office, perhaps, or the headquarters elements and the ACE's office.
A:
You say sometimes there seem to be tensions; there probably are. In a lot of things where
good folks are operating, tensions occur at the staff level. They're trying to protect their boss,
or isolate their boss, or do something.
Usually when you get boss to boss, reason and logic prevail. Sometimes below those levels,
somebody's trying to make sure they keep it in a particular arena, as they see the world, but
they're not the people with real perspective of how things are. The boss got to where he is
because he'd been through all those major, lieutenant colonel gates, and now he's a major
general, like Pete Offringa, the ACE, because he's done a lot of that stuff. He has a
perspective. Some of his subordinates may not. So, I think most of it's that.
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