Gold Castles is the name of the
14K gold insignia pin handed down from General
Douglas MacArthur
Douglas MacArthur (26 January 18805 April 1964) was an American military leader who served as General of the Army for the United States, as well as a field marshal to the Philippine Army. He had served with distinction in World War I, was C ...
to his chief engineer Major General
Leif J. Sverdrup
Leif Johan Sverdrup CBE (11 January 1898 – 2 January 1976) was a Norwegian-born American civil engineer and general with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the first half of the 20th century. He is best known for his service in the Southwest ...
in 1945, who established a tradition in 1975 that it shall be given to each successive
Chief of Engineers
The Chief of Engineers is a principal United States Army staff officer at The Pentagon. The Chief advises the Army on engineering matters, and serves as the Army's topographer and proponent for real estate and other related engineering programs. ...
of the
.
Origin: Corps Castle insignia
The pin is a 14K rendition of the logo of the Corps, the so-called
Corps Castle
Corps Castle is the logo of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). The logo is typically a white castle with three towers set on a red background. When the Corps Castle is worn as insignia on a uniform, it is similar to the logo design but wi ...
, which was used on an informal basis by cadets at
West Point
The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...
dating back to 1839. Beginning in 1841, many wore personal insignia of this type on the uniforms. These came to be called Gold Castles. In 1902, the castle was formally adopted by the Army as the insignia of the Corps of Engineers. It was changed to silver from 1894 to 1921
Originally a graduation gift to Douglas MacArthur
A pair of the gold pin insignia of the Corps Castle were graduation gifts from his family originally received by cadet and newly commissioned Second Lieutenant Douglas MacArthur at the United States Military Academy at
West Point, New York
West Point is the oldest continuously occupied military post in the United States. Located on the Hudson River in New York, West Point was identified by General George Washington as the most important strategic position in America during the Ame ...
in the Class of 1903. Trained as an engineer, MacArthur wore them through his service in
World War I
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, as Commandant of West Point, as Army Chief of Staff, and as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the
Pacific Theater
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
In 1945, General MacArthur presented his Gold Castles to Major General Leif J. Sverdrup, his chief engineer. General Sverdrup later recalled that MacArthur told him that, although he personally valued them very much, they "deserved to be worn by a real engineer." (This was apparently a reference to General MacArthur's transfer from the Corps of Engineers to Infantry in 1917).
Beginning a tradition: General Sverdrup
On May 2, 1975, upon the 200th anniversary of the Corps, retired General Sverdrup, who had
civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering – the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructure while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing ...
ing projects including the landmark 17 mile-long
Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel Chesapeake often refers to:
*Chesapeake people, a Native American tribe also known as the Chesepian
* The Chesapeake, a.k.a. Chesapeake Bay
*Delmarva Peninsula, also known as the Chesapeake Peninsula
Chesapeake may also refer to:
Populated plac ...
to his credit, presented the Gold Castles to then-Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General
William C. Gribble, Jr.
William C. Gribble Jr. (born May 24, 1917 in Ironwood, Michigan – June 2, 1979) graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1941 and was commissioned in the Corps of Engineers.
During World War II, he served on the staff of the 340t ...
, who had also served under General MacArthur in the Pacific.
Later at the same
Fort Belvoir
Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Fairfax family for whom Fair ...
ceremony, General Gribble announced an intention to begin a tradition of passing the gold castle pins along to be worn by each future head of the Corps. His successor received them the following year, as has each subsequent Chief of Engineers.
The current "castle" logo of the Corps is a rendition of the more detailed of the Gold Castle pins.
External links
History of the Chief of Engineers' Gold Castles
United States military badges