If Lt. Gen. Robert L. Van Antwerp Jr. wins Senate approval to be the next chief of the Army Corps of Engineers, he will have daunting tasks ahead. In the U.S., the Corps is in the midst of a massive rebuilding of hurricane-damaged levees around New Orleans; overseas, it continues to reconstruct war-ravaged Iraqi infrastructure as violence persists.
“We are facing lots of challenges,” says John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for civil works. “I have no doubt that ‘General Van’ will enjoy that immensely because I think he’s the kind of person who’s not really happy if he’s not really being challenged.”