1 60 Dahlgren 



write. But you can always look back and say there were things you could have 

 done, in retrospect, that would have made a situation more successful, but I 

 think we did much better than most other communities. We've been looked at 

 as a showcase by the equal rights people in Fredericksburg and Washington. 

 Washington had sent people down to us to see how we did it. It's only right that 

 a federal activity attempt this. I don't know what you can say about private 

 business, but certainly the government, as a whole, has that kind of responsibil- 

 ity, and we're agents of the government. 



You were Technical Director at Dahlgren during the Vietnam War. This conflict 

 certainly must have had a tremendous effect on the work at Dahlgren. 



We never had any trouble recruiting as many young people as we wanted — 

 the best ones, the cream of the crop, out of colleges and universities — never had 

 any trouble. It indicates to me that what the newspapers and the media were 

 reporting was grossly exaggerated. A lot of us felt that if you're going to do any 

 negotiating with that bunch [communists ], you would have to have a position of 

 strength. If you didn't, you would lose your friends, and we've been losing 

 them. 



Did the work increase at Dahlgren during the war? 



It increased. We had quite a bit, but it hasn't gone down since we had this 

 so-called phony peace. Dahlgren is still as active as ever. 



Employment was higher at that time, wasn't it? 



Employment on the gun line, proofing load, was higher. But as that went 

 down, it was replaced by other programs coming in. Dahlgren skills weren't 

 going to be overlooked by headquarters. 



So there really wasn't much of a "gearing down" after the war? 



Only in one area, the proof and acceptance. The other areas increased as that 

 went down. In fact, a lot of the people that we thought we might have to lay off 

 in that area were transferred and retrained in other areas. Through that whole 

 so-called RIF, there weren't more than 50 discharged. Out of 3000, 50 are 

 peanuts. 



Do you remember any serious accidents that occurred in weapons testing at Dahlgren? 



There was one. I guess we attribute it to a personnel error, where somebody 

 was killed testing some ignition [of ammunition]. I think it was somewhere 

 around 1969 or something like that. 



