Engineer Memoirs _____________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile, General Schroeder really has the ball. He's the proponent now. He did the heavy
work of discussing it within the TRADOC community. His analysis in TRADOC--the
Engineer Restructure Study--showed that a battalion was right for the maneuver brigade and
that we needed all the things called for in the new organization. Under the AirLand Battle
future program the Army was downsizing the heavy division. That's a future model. So, Dan
Schroeder built a future engineer component.
EForce, as a name, really isn't the name of this new organization. I mean, I already told you
how EForce manifests itself to the heavy division. The new concept looks an awful lot like
EForce, but it has things that have changed to match the AirLand Battle future concept. The
program name was changed to the Engineer Restructure Initiative, and that's what Dan
Schroeder's pushing now.
The Army, the field knows it was EForce because it looks like EForce and has the major
things that the EForce design had when we first came out with it. So, that's still, I guess, the
name that one attributes to what we're talking about.
Q:
So, we're still awaiting another decision?
A:
Well, where it is right now is that General Schroeder was successful in going to General
Foss, commanding general at TRADOC. General Saint, from USAREUR, came up on the net
along with General Burba, commanding general of Forces Command, who was a big
supporter when he was commandant at the Infantry School. He was a fellow commandant
with me. Both came up on the net and supported it strongly.
General RisCassi left being the Vice Chief of Staff of the Army where he was facilitating
those things on the Army Staff and went to Korea. He was a buyer and reorganized his
engineers in Korea to the EForce concept.
So, where we stand right now is that it has been approved by General Vuono for
implementation in Europe as the force draws down. That's what General Saint wanted.
After Conventional Forces, Europe, when General Saint reduces the size of his European
force, he designed what he wanted that force to look like. He wanted that force to have all of
its divisions with an EForce kind of regimental organization, and the Chief of Staff
approved that. With TRADOC now having to approve the TO&E documentation, the letter
was provided. Europe now has the modified organizations and, with the drawdown, will
organize the two EForce brigades. They planned to do that in two divisions in '91.
Korea also wants to do EForce, and they've already come in so that this year's command
selection boards will select their centralized troop commanders. Europe is in the process of
doing the same thing for their troop commanders.
What happens in Forces Command is unknown at the present time. General Schroeder's
documentation provides for everybody. I think that DESERT SHIELD, now ongoing, and with
Forces Command in the midst of a build-down--that is, the 2d Armored is going out--and
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