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 in the Class of 1903. Trained as an engineer, MacArthur wore them through his service in World War I, as Commandant of West Point, as Army Chief of Staff, and as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific Theater in World War II.
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).
Read more about this topic: Gold Castles
Famous quotes containing the words douglas macarthur, originally, douglas and/or macarthur:
“A general is just as good or just as bad as the troops under his command make him.”
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)
“If all power is in the people, if there is no higher law than their will, and if by counting their votes, their will may be ascertained—then the people may entrust all their power to anyone, and the power of the pretender and the usurper is then legitimate. It is not to be challenged since it came originally from the sovereign people.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“Annie Laurie
Gie’d me her promise true;
Gie’d me her promise true,
Which ne’er forgot will be;
And for bonnie Annie Laurie
I’d lay me doune and dee.”
—William Douglas (1672?–1748)
“Like the old soldier of the ballad, I now close my military career and just fade away, an old soldier who tried to do his duty as God gave him the light to see that duty. Goodbye.”
—Douglas MacArthur (1880–1964)