Along with the first major commitment of American ground troops in Vietnam, in 1965, there was a huge expansion of the construction program. A four-company joint venture made up of Morrison-Knudsen, Raymond International, Brown & Root and J.A. Jones Construction Co. was selected by the U.S. Dept of Defense. Lyman Wilbur, vice president of Morrison-Knudsen’s foreign operations, was put in charge of the crash program, the first time the major share of construction in a war zone was handed to a civilian team. Within ten months, the workforce swelled from 390 Americans and 9,500 South Vietnamese laborers to 1,600 Americans and 24,500 Vietnamese. By early 1966 the venture had completed or was at work on 400 projects at 30 sites­—ports, airfields, bases and supply depots. For his role in organizing a management structure over the rapidly-growing colossus, using personnel from the four firms, while laying down a logistics pipeline 9,000 miles from U.S. sources of supply, Wilbur was the first ENR Award of Excellence recipient (known as “Man of the Year” at that time).