94 Dahlgren 



Don't have any technical staff down there because you cannot run a pure test 

 station — not today. 



People say "RDT&E" as if it is all one thing. It isn't by any means, but a proper 

 mix of RDT&E is essential for a technical installation like a Navy laboratory or a 

 proving ground. You need people like Allen Hershey * around, even though he 

 might not contribute anything at all to the direct mission. He's doing basic 

 research, and this rubs off on the other people in the Laboratory. You need a 

 few people like that to keep the intellectual tone what it should be to promote a 

 healthy professional climate. A lot of people on the staff are proud and happy 

 to know that Dahlgren is doing basic research. They don't want to do it 

 themselves. It's not their talent, but its existence helps their morale and their 

 professional competence. 



We tried occasionally at Dahlgren to run a separate test installation, and there 

 were managerial reasons why this made a nice organizational entity. Let's make 

 a pure test operation. It would die on the vine. You couldn't persuade good 

 people to go there. The work would not be sufficiently stimulating. If you 

 mixed it in with the other kind of work, development work, and gave these guys 

 some responsibility, some sense of belonging to the development program 

 rather than being there to run tests, you found that it was a great deal healthier, 

 and it worked a great deal better. So we were not at all enamored with the idea 

 of being an independent test station because that would not work. 



We told Admiral Withington that the third alternative was to support 

 us — find us something to do. Here is what we are good for. You can tell us what 

 projects you can nudge our way. The fourth alternative was just to close us 

 down. 



He adopted the one we wanted him to adopt. He started asking his staff, 

 "Okay, what can you give Dahlgren?" He asked right there in the meeting. We 

 got our first project started right there because one of the Captains on his staff 

 was at the time worrying about HERO — what later became HERO [Hazards of 

 Electromagnetic Radiation to Ordnance]. He said, "This Hazards Program — 

 I've got to put that somewhere. You know, it wouldn't be a bad idea to put that 

 at Dahlgren. We'll consider it." And he did. That was our showdown, so to 

 speak, and Withington was convinced that we had something, and he sup- 

 ported us. 



But now, you see, this gave us nothing more than an entree, a chance to 

 present our case. Then we had to send people up to the Bureau and beat on the 

 doors of the individual project officers who had programs to sponsor and 

 convince them that this was the way of the future. You'd better get on board. It 

 took the entire senior staff an awful lot of time in Washington to get this thing 

 moving. And, of course, the more you get it moving, the more you demonstrate 



*Dr. Allen V. Hershey is a senior member of the Warfare Analysis Department. 



