The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-03-07
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

~ Il
LnCALA, Fla. March Panama
~ had its Goethals, Brooklyn
Bridge its Roebling. and the Florida
Canal will have, suppose, its Som
ervell. reg
He is Lieut.. Col. Brehon Burke
Somervell of the United States
Army Engineers. His close friends
call him Bill" His title down here
is merely district engineer Bun
he is the head of the whole works.
This is a grand assignment-big
job, nice weather, good people TO
work with. 1 asked Col. Somervell
if he requested this post. He said
no. He explained that once. a long
time ago, he and some other officers
did so well in school at Fort Leav-
enworth that they could have their
| choice of assignments. So he asked
to be sent to some Southern state.
They sent him to New York City.
He has never asked for an assigH-
ment since.
WHEN I pulled into Camp
w Roosevelt, at 5 p. m. on a
Sunday, I found the Colonel in the
Administration Building, all alone.
working at desk piled a foot deep
with charts and reports. His own
desk is neat and clean, and he
works at this trash-heap desk along
the wall. -
I'm glad you came. I wanted to
quit work anyhow" he said. His as
sistants say that is one of his finest
traits. He can quit work just like
that. He turns out an enormous
amount of labor, sometimes Is hours
a day, but when he quits he really
quits, and relaxes like a rag. -,
Somervell surprised me. I had
expected to see an old, hard-bitten
engineer veteran, tough as a horse
hair lariat and meaner than PLATE.
Somervell is tough, all right, guess,
but he doesn't look it..
He wears blue trousers and a light
gray pull-over sweater. 1t would
make him sore to say so, but he is
a handsome man. He's only A and
looks less. His hair is turning SID
yer, and swings back over his head
in big wave.
He's fellow you can sit down
and talk with. He's tremendous
reader, and seems to know sone-
thing about everything. =
COMERVELL has a record behind
~ him. An Arkansan from Little
Rock, he graduated from West Point
in 1914, sixth in his class. -
A few months later, when the war
broke out, he was in Paris as an
embassy attache He saw the war
start, and he saw it finish. In be-
tween, he was in Mexico in 1867
He went back to France in 1918
with the very first regiment He was
a temporary colonel, only four years
out of West Point. He won the
Distinguished Service Cross for ex-
traordinary heroism in action. .. 4.
After the war he went up into
Germany with the Army of Occupa-
ton. In 1925 he was back in Ger
many, on a survey of the Rhine for
the League of Nations, In 1888 and
'34 he did another stint in Europe,
this time making an economic
survey for the Turkish government.
Between these times he served all
up and down the Mississippi River
and all over New England, doing
regular Army engineering work. =;
ICOL. SOMERvELL has never
~ seen the Panama Canal. Or the
Suez either. He has, however, been
through the Manchester Canal in
England, and the Kiel and Cape
Cod canals. He has always wanted
to take a trip to Panama, but
couldn't get anybody to stay with
the children.
He has three girls, Is, II and 9.
One of them last summer killed - a
copperhead snake, skinned it, and
made a bandeau out of the skin.
What daughter!
Col. Somervell lives in a bungalow
here in Camp Roosevelt. The
houses are rented to canal employees,
without discrimination, the house
depending on the size of the en-
ploye's family. Col Somervell has
the biggest family, so he gets the
biggest house. 70
He likes his job down here. If
he had had his choice of anything
in this world he could do, he says,
it would be to have charge of build
ing the Florida Canal.
His Office is big, pine-paneled
room in the rear of the administra-
ton building. 1t has a. fireplace, but
it hasn't been lighted much. The
windows have separate panels UNI
derneath, that can be opened for
hot weather. -t