Casey, Hugh John “Patt”

Casey, Hugh John “Patt”, born on 07-06-1891 in Brooklyn, New York, the son of John J. Casey, entrepreneur, and Margaret L. Casey. His grandparents are Irish and English immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania. After serving on the Union side during the Civil War, his grandfather was killed at the Battle of Shiloh. The Battle of Shiloh, also known as the Battle of Pittsburg Landing, was a major battle in the American Civil War fought on April 6–7, 1862. The fighting took place in southwestern Tennessee, which was part of the war’s Western Theater. The battlefield is located between a small, undistinguished church named Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River. Two Union armies combined to defeat the Confederate Army of Mississippi. Major General Ulysses Simpson Grant was the Union commander, while General Albert Sidney Johnston

was the Confederate commander until his battlefield death, when he was replaced by his second-in-command, General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard.

Between 1910 and 1914, Hugh John Casey attended Manual Training High School, graduating at age 15. He won a New York State scholarship and attended Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute, where he studied civil engineering. A year later, he passed a competition organized by Daniel Joseph Griffin , Congressman and Chairman of the United States House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, to gain admission to West Point Military Academy. Hugh John Casey takes first place out of 62 candidates but must fake his age to join the Academy

Hugh Casey will always be remembered as General Douglas MacArthur’s chief engineer, because his greatest achievements as an engineer came during his eight years with Douglas MacArthur. Casey started his career in the Army and Corps of Engineers as an underage plebe who entered the US Military Academy during the summer of 1915 and not involved in World War I. The firsthand knowledge of the Philippine topography that Casey gained during his surveys allowed him during World War II to plan and act with a detailed personal knowledge of the terrain.   His second duty, to advise MacArthur, brought Casey into close contact with his future commander and many of the Philippine Army engineers. Casey supervised demolitions as MacArthur’s troops retreated to Bataan. He joined MacArthur and sixteen other members of his staff in their escape from Corregidor by PT boat in March 1942. For the Battle of Leyte Casey’s ASCOM had 43.000 men, of whom 21.000 were engineers. The need to get aircraft based on Leyte  to stop the Japanese from reinforcing the island was so pressing that Lieutenant General George Kenney was persuaded to accept the site and Lieutenant General Walter Krueger

  agreed to move his headquarters. Despite enormous difficulties Casey’s ASCOM was able to finish numerous projects on time. On 13-02-1945, ASCOM was transferred to USASOS and redesigned the Luzon Base Section. Casey then resumed his post as Chief Engineer, but remained in Japan as MacArthur’s Chief Engineer until Casey’s retirement, on 31-12-1949.

   “Patt” Casey died of a heart attack, at the old age of 90, on 30-08-1981, at the Veterans Administration Hospital at White River Junction, Vermont. Hugh Casey is buried with his wife Dorothy, born Miller, who died old age of 93 in 1995, and his son Keith, on the Arlington National Cemetery in Section 3. His other son, Hugh, had been killed in an air crash during the Korean War. Father and son were buried adjacent to each other in Arlington National Cemetery. His daughter Patricia, who married Major General Frank Butner Clay, the son of Lucius Clay, had died on  01-01-1973, and is also buried in Arlington National Cemetery. Further the Major General, Commander, G1 (Personnel) Section, Headquarters SHAEF, Charles Bonesteel, 101^st  Airborne “Screaming Eagles”  General, Anthony McAuliffe the Bastogne defender.

  Major General. Commander, 7^th Armoured Division, Truman Boudinot, Commanded the 25^st  Infantry Division during the Attack on Pearl Harbor, Maxwell Murray, Major General, adviser MacArthur. Corps Engineers, Hugh Casey, Major General, “Father of the Armoured Forces”, Adna Chaffee, Lieutenant General, Chief of Staff, Hugh Drum, Lieutenant General, 3^rd Service Command and Deputy, Manton Eddy, Rear Admiral, U Boot 505, Daniel Gallery, Lieutenant General, Quartermaster U.S. Army, Thomas Larkin, General Lieutenant, Frank Cadle Mahin, commander of the 45^th Division , General Lieutenant, Commander 84^th Infantry Division Third Army, Alexander Bolling   and Marine Corps General, Iwo Jima-Guadalcanal-Okinawa, Randolph Pate, Major General. Commander, G1 (Personnel) Section, Headquarters SHAEF, Charles Bonesteel, 1* Brigadier General, Assistant Commanding General 78^th Division, nickname “Lightning”  John Kirkland Rice.