J.B. West (left) briefs Lt. Gen. Frederick J. Clarke (third from left), and Chief of Engineers from 1969 to 1973, prior to an aerial inspection of the Tennessee Colony Project in 1971. West simultaneously worked for the Corps of Engineers and served in the Army Reserve as the commander of an aviation unit. West routinely combined his two careers to include flying the length of the Trinity River from Fort Worth to the Galveston Bay for a preliminary design to make the river navigable up to Fort Worth.