World War II: Hugh John "Pat" Casey CBE (7 June 1898 – 30 August 1981) was a major general in the United States Army.

Casey served as General of the Army Douglas MacArthur's chief engineer during the Battle of Bataan, in the jungles and mountains of New Guinea and the Philippines, and during the occupation of Japan.

Later, Casey worked for Schenley Industries from 1951 until his retirement in 1965, and was chairman of the New York City Transit Authority from 1953 to 1955.

He won a New York State scholarship and entered Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute, where he studied civil engineering.

Unlike most appointees to West Point, a grateful Casey wrote frequently to Griffin about his progress and sent him football tickets.

Martin served with the coastal artillery for eleven years before being medically discharged due to migraine headaches on 30 November 1931.

[14] In September 1929 Casey was assigned to the Rivers and Harbors Section of the Office of the Chief of Engineers in Washington, DC.

[19] After the Passamaquoddy project fell through, Casey served with the Boston Engineer District on flood control surveys of the Connecticut River Valley.

They worked with Meralco and other power companies in the Philippines, and conducted a series of surveys, including a detailed one of the Agno River.

After Clay returned to the United States, Casey developed plans for the Caliraya Dam, a 40,000 horsepower (30,000 kW) hydroelectric project with an estimated cost of $5 million.

Along with Lieutenant Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower, the chief of staff to Major General Douglas MacArthur, the Military Advisor to the Commonwealth Government of the Philippines, and Mr. Rodriquez of the National Power Corporation, Casey presented the project to President Manuel Quezon, who approved it.

Working with a staff that included George Bergstrom, a former president of the American Institute of Architects,[23] Casey set about revising the standard designs for barracks.

[7] On the afternoon of Thursday, 17 July 1941, Somervell summoned Casey and Bergstrom and gave them a new special project: the design of an enormous office complex to house the War Department's 40,000-person staff together in one building.

Somervell gave them until 09:00 on Monday morning to design the building, which he envisaged as a modern, four-story structure with no elevators, on the site of the old Washington Hoover Airport.

Over that "very busy weekend", Casey, Bergstrom and their staff roughed out the design for a four-story, five-sided structure with a floor area of 5,100,000 square feet (470,000 m2)—twice that of the Empire State Building.

[26] President Roosevelt subsequently moved the site of the building, over Somervell's objections, away from Arlington National Cemetery.

[28] Casey supervised demolitions as MacArthur's troops retreated to Bataan, for which he was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross.

[29] Unlike the rest of MacArthur's headquarters, Casey, who was promoted to colonel on 19 December 1941 and brigadier general on 25 January 1942,[7] did not relocate to Corregidor but remained on Bataan with a small staff of five officers.

[32] In Australia, Casey became Chief Engineer at MacArthur's General Headquarters (GHQ), Southwest Pacific Area (SWPA).

The Royal Australian Air Force organized its own airbase construction squadrons and only with difficulty was Casey able to control their activities.

In the absence of a proper stock control system, an overall coordinating agency, and adequate numbers of engineer depot units, the allocation and distribution of the meager supplies on hand were difficult tasks.

Requisitions sent to the United States took months to arrive, so recourse was made to the limited sources of supply in Australia.

[34] In September 1942, MacArthur decided to outflank Japanese troops on the Kokoda Trail by sending an American regimental combat team over the Owen Stanley Range.

After eight days on the trail, scaling heights of 5,000 feet (1,500 m), Sverdrup concluded that it would not be practical for troops to traverse the route and turned back.

The scale of operations in the Philippines was much greater, so for this purpose the Army Service Command (ASCOM) was formed in Brisbane on 23 July 1944.

[37] Casey and some members of his staff came ashore on A-Day; the advance echelon of his ASCOM headquarters arrived two days later.

The need to get aircraft based on Leyte to stop the Japanese from reinforcing the island was so pressing that Lieutenant General Walter Krueger agreed to move his headquarters.

[43] Casey was Chairman of the New York City Transit Authority from 1953 to 1955, and served in various positions with Schenley Industries from 1951 until his retirement in 1965.

[44] He died of a heart attack on 30 August 1981 at the Veterans Administration Hospital at White River Junction, Vermont, survived by his wife Dorothy and his son Keith.