Foreword: Few retired officers or civilians of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ever set down a summary of their careers with the intention of sharing their acquired knowledge with others. Our organization and the engineering profession have lost valuable information through our failure to record and publish the remembrances of leading military and civilian members of the Corps until now. The Historical Division within the Office of the Chief of Engineers has embarked upon a systematic. program to capture this wealth of experience.
This volume, the first in a projected series of Engineer Memoirs, is an effort to acquaint active military engineers and their colleagues with the untapped fund of military, leadership, management, and personal experience possessed by one of the men who has shaped the Corps of Engineers. It is published in the realization that the reflections of one individual on a lifetime of his own successes and failures often produce for others a valuable perspective on present and future decisions.
Presented here are transcripts of two interviews with Lieutenant General Frederick J. Clarke, Chief of Engineers from 1 August 1969 to 1 July 1973. Since his graduation from the U.S. Military Academy in 1937, Fred Clarke’s military and civilian engineering career has spanned more than four decades. His active duty years encompassed World War II and two limited conflicts in Korea and Vietnam, command in a specially established engineer district overseas, and a number of demanding executive assignments in the Army at home and abroad. I have had the privilege of knowing Fred Clarke for many years and of serving under him as Director of Civil Works in his last year as Chief of Engineers. His tour as Chief was a period of profound change for the Corps. I recommend this volume to thoughtful officers and civilian members of our Engineer family as a distillation of Fred Clarke’s noteworthy service to the nation, the U.S. Army, and the Corps.
