John Rickey talks in his office at the Mississippi Valley Division on Walnut Street about his new position as communications chief for the Vicksburg-based U.S. Army Corps of Engineers division.(Melanie Duncan Thortis The Vicksburg Post)

[3/17/03]A specialist who once wrote speeches for U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell has joined the Vicksburg-based division of the Army Corps of Engineers.

John Rickey, who took charge of public affairs for the Corps’ Mississippi Valley Division in January, was a principal speechwirter for Powell in his Army post before he became chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

“Both he and his wife, Alma, they’re just absolutely wonderful people, great folks to work for,” Rickey said of Powell. “I admire him for the pressure he’s under today.”

Powell was then the commanding general at U.S. Army Forces Command in Atlanta. He delivered an average of one or two speeches a week, and Rickey headed what he called “a speech-generation factory” within a public affairs staff of about 35, he said.

“Forces Command was then, at about 1 million strong, the largest Department of Defense organization,” Rickey said. He added that Forces Command was a principal source of warfighters, and he focused mainly on messages to personnel.

Powell’s speeches during his nine-month command there included responses to several natural disasters, including a San Francisco earthquake and Hurricane Hugo, and the U.S. military action in Panama, Rickey said.

“I didn’t take claim to fame for all his great philosophies on life, but I live by them,” Rickey said. “Don’t sweat the small stuff, things like that.’ He’s a pretty inspiring guy.”

Rickey’s most recent assignment was at Fort Knox, Ky., known as the nation’s largest reserve of gold. On Sept. 11, 2001, his job suddenly changed dramatically.

“We were an open community, you could drive through Fort Knox,” Rickey said of the post where he was stationed when planes crashed into buildings in New York and Washington, D.C., and into a field in Pennsylvania. Rickey said he logged 214 hours at work in the two weeks beginning that day.

“We went from a completely open community to a completely closed community. Dealing with the community relations aspect, the liaison mission to the surrounding communities really, really occupied a lot of my time between the economical impacts of changing the relationship with the community, simply because of the security posture.”

With headquarters on Walnut Street, the Mississippi Valley Division operates through six districts with territories covering parts of 12 states along the Mississippi River. In his new office there, he said last week he had spent much of his first six weeks traveling and meeting the people he will be working with in the different divisions along the river.

A native of Cincinnati, Ohio, Rickey has long family ties to the Mississippi and Ohio rivers. A great-grandfather, grandfather and uncle were all river captains, and his uncle operated one of the largest river salvage operations in the nation, he said.

“I’m in charge of the strategic communications for the division, message promulgation,” Rickey said, adding that he was on the personal staff of the division’s commander, Gen. Don T. Riley. “Part of the reason why I believe I was hired is some of the focus has naturally shifted, as a result of the events of Sept. 11, to homeland security.” On March 1, the new cabinet-level federal department assumed operational control of nearly 180,000 employees.

“Our core competencies are managing the watershed for the Mississippi River and its tributaries,” Rickey said.

Rickey took over for Pam Clark, who served as acting director of public relations for several months while the public affairs chief’s position was vacant, division spokesman Karen Buehler said.

Two special projects he will be working on are the division’s 125th anniversary commemoration this year and next year’s Grand Excursion, a year-long celebration featuring a re-enactment of an 1854 journey that brought worldwide attention to the upper Mississippi.

“It was tough leaving my adopted hometown of Radcliff, Kentucky, but this will be a great place to set down roots,” Rickey said, adding that his wife is planning to move to Vicksburg this summer, and one of his two children will be attending college at Mississippi University for Women in the fall.