Beginning A Tradition: General Sverdrup
On May 2, 1975, upon the 200th anniversary of the Corps, retired General Sverdrup, who had civil engineering projects including the landmark 17 mile-long Chesapeake Bay Bridge-Tunnel to his credit, presented the Gold Castles to then-Chief of Engineers Lieutenant General William C. Gribble, Jr., who had also served under General MacArthur in the Pacific.
Later at the same Fort Belvoir 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.
Read more about this topic: Gold Castles
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