by Steve Vogel
ENR—Engineering News-Record
FDR Lib—Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, New York
F&R—Army Corps of Engineers historians Lenore Fine and Jesse Remington
GCM Lib—George C. Marshall Library, Lexington, Va.
HML—Hagley Museum and Library, Wilmington, Del.
HST Lib.—Harry S. Truman Library
LOC—Library of Congress
MDW—U.S. Army Military District of Washington
MHI—U.S. Army Military History Institute, Carlisle, Pa.
MLK Lib—Martin Luther King Library, Washingtoniana Division
NARA—National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Md.
NARA DC—National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C.
NCPPC—National Capital Park and Planning Commission
NYT—The New York Times
OSD—Office of the Secretary of Defense
OSD HO—Office of the Secretary of Defense Historical Office
OUSA—Office of the Under Secretary of the Army
PENREN—Pentagon Renovation Program
RG—record group
SDF—Somervell Desk File, NARA RG 160
Star—Washington Evening Star
USMA—United States Military Academy Archives, West Point
WP—The Washington Post
WT-H—Washington Times-Herald
PRELUDE
A pentagon
On a warm Planning memorandum, 30 Sept. 1942, David Witmer papers, box 1306, OSD HO (hereafter known as Witmer planning memorandum); “The Pentagon Project,” Control Division, Army Service Forces, 25 June 1944, box 15, file 4, SDF, NARA RG 160 (hereafter known as “The Pentagon Project—ASF”); Alfred Goldberg, The Pentagon: The First Fifty Years, 16–20; Steve Vogel, “The Battle of Arlington,” WP, 26 Apr. 1999.
The general spoke Maxwell Taylor, oral history with Forrest C. Pogue, 1959, GCM Lib.; George C. Marshall, oral history with Pogue, 14 Feb. 1957, GCM Lib.; Forrest Pogue, Ordeal and Hope, 297; “The S.O.S.” Fortune, Sept. 1942.
“Pat, we’re going” Engineer Memoirs—Major General Hugh J. Casey, 1993, 137–140; Casey letter to Lt. Col. David Matheson, 11 July 1955, vii, CEHO.
Yet it must be no Witmer planning memorandum, OSD HO; Somervell notes on the building July 1941, I, CEHO.
“Now, don’t question” Robert Colglazier, oral history, 1984, MHI.
“That,” Casey later Engineer Memoirs—Casey, p. 137.
Washington was consumed The Papers of George C. Marshall, vol. 2, 547; “The Pentagon Project,” Engineer Historical Division, 1, I, box 16, CEHO (hereafter known as “The Pentagon Project—EHD”); “Report of the Secretary of War to the President, 1939,” 33.
Working around the clock Engineer Memoirs—Casey, 137–140.
CHAPTER 1: DYNAMITE IN A TIFFANY BOX
Stimson looks for the right man
To his staff T.T. Handy, oral history, 1959, GCM Lib; Lucius Clay, oral history, 1972, MHI.
The largest peacetime Lenore Fine and Jesse A. Remington, The Corps of Engineers: Construction in the United States, 152–153, 519–520; “Report of the Secretary of War to the President, 1941,” 55.
“They had gotten into” Henry L. Stimson diary, 7 Feb. 1942 (hereafter Stimson diary); F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 239–41; Time, 23 Dec. 1940.
Back then, he had seemingly NYT, Stimson obituary, 21 Oct. 1950.
“I am not satisfied” Stimson diary, 20 Aug. 1940; John J. McCloy, memorandum to Jesse Remington, circa 1957, VII, box 32, CEHO.
“Have him assigned” George C. Marshall to Gen. Bryden, GCM Papers, box 85, Somervell folder, GCM Lib.
I suppose the fellow who built the Pyramids was efficient, too
None of Brehon L. D. Dunbar, “Army Man at Work,” New Yorker, 10 and 17 Feb. 1940.
Somervell found the idea NYT, 8 July 1939.
Somervell imposed Stephen Voorhees, F&R interview, 1958, VII, box 33, CEHO; NYT, 8 Feb. 1940
“I suppose the fellow” Dunbar, “Army Man at Work.”
“Well, girls” New York World-Telegram, Nov. 1937; Dunbar, “Army Man at Work.”
“Dynamite in a Tiffany box” Charles J. V. Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.,” Life, 8 May 1943.
Somervell was one of the only Ibid.
Somervell “went up like a torch” Florence Kerr, oral history, 1963, Smithsonian.
A furor arose John Kennedy Ohl, Supplying the Troops: General Somervell and American Logistics in World War II, 35.
“The day before yesterday” William A. Delano, letter, New York Herald Tribune, 16 Feb. 1955.
Much of the $45-million Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 32–3; “New York Municipal Airport” brochure, undated, Somervell papers, MHI; NYT, 16 Oct. 1939, 8 Nov. 1940.
“I was much impressed” Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 33.
Just a country boy from Arkansas
“I’m just a country boy” Address at University of Arkansas, 7 June 1943, “General Brehon B. Somervell Public Addresses,” v. 2, Somervell papers, MHI (hereafter Somervell addresses); Kansas City Star, 30 Dec. 1943.
He had been born Biographical papers, Somervell papers, MHI; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 9–10.
There Brehon was raised Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Connie Somervell Matter, author interview, 25 Feb. 2004.
Brehon had a wild streak John Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion,” American Magazine, June 1944; The Brecky 1909 Central High School yearbook, Somervell papers, MHI; Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.”
Somervell won West Point academic records, Somervell papers, MHI; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 10; Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion” Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Dunbar, “Army Man at Work.”
Touring Europe “Service Reminiscences of Lt. Gen. John C.H. Lee,” MHI; Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion” Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.”
“I was hard at work” Dunbar, “Army Man at Work.”
The Pershing expedition “Recollections of General Brehon Somervell,” memorandum to author, Lt. Gen. (Ret.) Ernest Graves, Jr., 12 Feb. 2004; Ernest Graves, Jr., author interview, 12 Feb. 2004; “Investigation of National Defense Program,” Statement of Lt. General Brehon B. Somervell to U.S. Senate Special Committee Investigating the National Defense Program, 20 Dec. 1943, Somervell papers, MHI; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 11.
Motoring down Dunbar, “Army Man at Work” Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion.”
Somervell’s performance Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” MHI; John M. Carlisle, “Somervell,” Detroit News, 7 May 1944; Distinguished Service Medal citation, Somervell papers, MHI.
“I have yet to hear” Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.”
“What do you know” Dunbar, “Army Man at Work.”
“truly an answer to prayer” Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” MHI.
For his exploits Somervell service record, Somervell papers, MHI; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 13–14.
“This is the best officer” Janney, “The Man Behind the Invasion” Ernest Graves letter to Roy Finch, 31 Dec. 1936, Somervell papers, MHI.
“He called himself a mean” Engineer Memoirs—General William M. Hoge, 1993, 97.
“Watch Somervell” Time, 8 Dec. 1941.
His reputation Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Matter, author’s interview; Lee, “Service Reminiscences,” MHI.
Magnitude never seemed to bother him
In 1929, Somervell pondered Maj. Brehon Somervell, “Report to the Chief of Engineers, United States Army on the Potomac River and Its Tributaries,” 1 Sept. 1930, Records of the Washington, D.C., District, NARA RG 77; WP, 29 Dec. 1929; Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, National Park Service, 1991, 30.
Somervell was pitted Washington Daily News, 3 Apr. 1930; Star, 3 Apr. 1930; WP, 6 Apr. 1930; Albert E. Cowdrey, A City for the Nation, 1979, 50.
He saw himself Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 18; Engineer Memoirs—Major General John
R. Hardin, 1981, 107, CEHO.
In 1934, President Roosevelt Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 22–24.
“He got his orders” Hugh S. Johnson, New York World-Telegram, 15 Mar. 1941.
Attracted by the grand scope Ernie Pyle, “44 Year-Old War Hero is Boss of the Florida Canal Job,” Washington Daily News, 3 Mar. 1936.
Congress cut off Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 22–24. The canal project would be periodically revived, including during World War II and again in the 1960s. Work was again shut down in 1971, and the project officially canceled in 1991. Today the canal right-of-way is a 110-mile-long environmental “greenway” across central Florida.
A gleam of light on the horizon
Among those he met F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 256; Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time: Franklin & Eleanor Roosevelt: The Home Front in World War II, 87; NYT, Harry Hopkins obituary, 30 Jan. 1946; Leslie R. Groves, F&R interview, 1956, VII, box 32, CEHO; Voorhees, F&R interview, VII, box 33, CEHO.
“If I hadn’t” Murphy, “Somervell of the S.O.S.” Richard C. Moore, memo to F&R, 1955, VII, box 32, CEHO.
La Guardia, by now NYT, 8 Nov. 1940; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 36; Current Biography 1942, 777.
Leaving New York “Comments of Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves on MS, Construction in the United States,” 1955, 51, VII, box 34, CEHO (hereafter Groves comments); John D. Millett, The Army Service Forces, 5; Julian Schley, F&R interview, 1955, VII, box 33, CEHO; George C. Marshall to Major Smith, 25 October 1940, GCM Papers, box 85, folder 17, GCM Lib.
Arriving in Washington Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 38; Stimson diary, 19 Dec. 1940.
Waiting in the wings
Brigadier General Charles Hartman, memo to F&R, 1955, CEHO; Mary Pagan, F&R interview, 1955, CEHO.
Being chief Winnie Cox, F&R interview, 1956, CEHO; NYT, 28 Dec. 1940; Michael Madigan, F&R interview, CEHO.
“It is a pathetic situation” Stimson diary, 11 Dec. 1940.
The White House had threatened McCloy memorandum to Remington, VII, box 33, CEHO.
Gregory, who was the Army’s Edmund Gregory, F&R interview, 1955, VII, box 32, CEHO; R. C. Moore memo to history office, 1953, VII, CEHO. Gregory disputed this account, telling Army historians the decision to sack Hartman was his.
Gregory finally saw Hartman memo to F&R, VII, CEHO; Pagan interview, VII, CEHO; F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 256–7; James Burns, F&R interview, 1956, CEHO.
Somervell’s appointment AP article, in NYT, 14 Dec. 1942; Stimson diary, 19 Dec. 1940; Cox interview, VII, CEHO; Pagan interview, VII, CEHO.
“Somervell was like” Stimson diary, 19 Dec. 1940.
CHAPTER 2: THE SOMERVELL BLITZ
I will just move
The officers of the Army’s “Conference on the Organization of the Construction Division,” 22 Feb. 1941, Otto L. Nelson Papers, box 6, folder 6, GCM Lib.
Since taking command F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 265.
The new construction chief Christian Dreyer, F&R interview, 1959, VII, box 32, CEHO; F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 265.
The Somervell Blitz Brehon Somervell, “The Engineer and Defense Construction,” Engineer Society Magazine, 2 Feb. 1942, Somervell addresses, MHI; Gar Davidson, “Grandpa Gar—The Saga of One Soldier as told to his Grandchildren,” 1974, CEHO (hereafter Grandpa Gar).
The first battle Somervell, “The Engineer and Defense Construction,” MHI; F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 293–94; Brehon Somervell, “Housing an Army Overnight,” Army and Navy Journal, 28 June 1941, Somervell addresses, MHI.
A new story emerged F&R, The Corps of Engineers, 373–74; Somervell memo to Construction Division, 14 Jan. 1941, Office of the Quartermaster General, entry 2102, boxes 1–4, NARA RG 92.
Somervell handled Clarence Renshaw, F&R interview, 1959, VII, box 33, CEHO; Voorhees interview, CEHO; Gregory interview, CEHO.
For Somervell, it was “Conference on the Organization of the Construction Division,” GCM Lib.; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 41; WT-H, 4 July 1941.
Truman considered Harry S. Truman, F&R interview, 1958, VII, CEHO; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 46–47.
Somervell did despise Somervell letter to Groves, 24 July 1952, Papers of Lt. Gen. Leslie R. Groves, box 9, NARA RG 200; W. D. Styer letter to Somervell, 26 July 1952, Somervell papers, Correspondence S-Z, MHI. Leslie R. Groves, oral history with Forrest C. Pogue, second interview, 14 May 1970, GCM Lib.; Truman declined to discuss the matter in his 1958 interview with Fine and Remington.
“Mr. Senator,” Garrison H. Davidson, oral history, 17–19 Nov. 1980, 151–52, CEHO; “Grandpa Gar,” 71, CEHO.
The committee was established David McCullough, Truman, 261–2; Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 46; WP, 15 Aug. 1941.
Truman’s slings Henry L. Stimson and McGeorge Bundy, On Active Service in Peace and War, 452; WP, 15 Aug. 1941.
Who is this stinker?
Groves was bemused Groves, F&R interview, 1956, CEHO.
Beneath his thick Robert S. Norris, Racing for the Bomb, 347; Stephane Groueff, Manhattan Project, 3; War Department press release, background information on Major General Leslie R. Groves, 6 Aug. 1945, NARA RG 200.
Somervell “was a gentleman” Engineer Memoirs—Hardin, 107; Norris, “Racing for the Bomb,” 150.
“When you looked at” Ibid., 135.
Captain Donald Antes Donald Antes, F&R interview, 1958, VII, box 32, CEHO.
Hartman had been forced Leslie Groves, F&R interview, 1956, VII, CEHO; Groves, oral history with Forrest C. Pogue, first interview, 7 May 1970, GCM Lib.
Groves could not Groves comments, 108, CEHO; Groves, oral history with Pogue, second interview, GCM Lib.
Groves, know as Dick Vincent C. Jones, Manhattan: The Army and the Atomic Bomb, 73; Norris, Racing for the Bomb, 41, 57–59, 79, 83, 97.
They shared a mentor Ibid., 117–120; Richard Groves, author interview, 9 Feb. 2004.
Graves’s protégés Engineer Memoirs—Casey, 97; Groves, assessment of Somervell, entry 7530, Comments, Interviews and Reviews, 1949–1970, box 5, NARA RG 200; Groves memo to file, “Somervell,” 30 Mar. 1967, Groves collection, USMA (Copies courtesy Stan Norris).
He had no complaints Groves comments, 51–52, CEHO; Groves dictation on Manhattan Project associates, 19 Nov. 1958, Groves collection, USMA; Groves, F&R interview, 1956, CEHO; Norris, Racing for the Bomb, 601; Groves, Somervell assessment, NARA RG 200.
A new headquarters
Henry Stimson was not Goldberg, The Pentagon, 9–10; David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, 70.
Through much of the 1930s Malin Craig memo to Secretary of War, 1 Feb. 1938, NARA RG 107.
“That is a small office” Gilmore Clarke, “Reminiscences of Gilmore David Clarke,” 1960, 162–3, CU (hereafter Clarke oral history); NYT, 23 June 1946; William B. Rhoads, “Franklin Roosevelt and Washington Architecture,” Records of the Columbia Historical Society of Washington, D.C.
“It is a most wasteful building” Stimson diary, 25 Apr. 1941.
The 24,30 War Department workers “The Pentagon Project—ASF,” 1, NARA RG 160; Norris, Racing for the Bomb, 155.
It was a far cry War Times, 31 Dec. 1943; Chalmer M. Roberts, Washington, Past and Present 138–140; St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 21 Jan. 1993; Goldberg, The Pentagon, 4–9; White House Web site, www.whitehouse.gov/history/eeobtour/historicalview-1800.html; John Clagett Proctor, “When War Department Had 18 Employees,” Star, 24 Aug. 1941.
When World War II Goldberg, The Pentagon, 5; Marshall to General Malin Craig, 21 Aug. 1939, and speech to the Chamber of Commerce of the United States, 29 Apr. 1941, The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, 37, 489.
“The matter of office space” Patterson to Secretary of War, 29 Nov. 1940, NARA RG 107; Marshall to Adm. Harold R. Stark, 10 Sept. 1940, The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, 301–2.
Even with the New U.S. House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Deficiencies, 77th Congress, 1st sess., Hearings on the First Supplemental National Defense Appropriations Bill for 1942, 1
7 July 1941, 488 (hereafter House hearing 17 July 1941); Stimson diary, 22 July 1941; Col. E. H. Householder to Under Secretary of War, 6 May 1941, NARA RG 107.
To help house Goldberg, The Pentagon, 14; WP, 16 March 1941 and 5 June 1941; The Papers of George Catlett Marshall, vol. 2, 531–2.
The overall solution
Woodrum, a powerful James E. Sargent, “Clifton A. Woodrum of Virginia,” The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, July 1981.
The proposal before Historical background of Pentagon prepared by architects, entry 5, Groves files and correspondence related to Pentagon, box 1, NARA RG 200 (hereafter architects’ historical memo); House hearing 17 July 1941; U.S. Senate Subcommittee of the Committee on Appropriations, 77th Congress, 1st sess., Hearings on the First Supplemental National Defense Appropriations Bill for 1942, 8 Aug. 1941, 181 (hereafter Senate hearing 8 Aug. 1941); “The Pentagon Project—EHD,” 1–3, CEHO.
The bespectacled Reybold WP, 21 May 1943; Current Biography, June 1945.
With typical brio Ohl, Supplying the Troops, 47; Goldberg, The Pentagon, 12–14.
CHAPTER 3: DREAM BUILDING
Incidentally, the largest office building in the world
The first problem Casey letter to Matheson, CEHO; Engineer Memoirs—Casey, vii–viii, 137–140; House hearing, 17 July 1941, 491; U.S. House Committee on Ap propriations, Subcommittee on Deficiencies, 77th Congress, 1st sess., Hearings on the First Supplemental National Defense Appropriations Bill for 1942, 22 July 1941, 500 (hereafter House hearing, 22 July 1941).
But the foundation Minutes of staff conference, Construction Division, July 1941, NARA RG 92; House hearing, 22 July 1941, 500. Engineer Memoirs—Casey, 138–39.
Like the adjacent cemetery Arlington County Visitors Center exhibit, author’s visit; Tom Sherlock, “Arlington National Cemetery, Historic Background Southern Portion,” Arlington Cemetery historian’s office.
