Page "Hugh John Casey" Paragraph 21

In New Guinea, logistics and construction activities were coordinated by task force engineer staffs.

These were often hastily assembled and had not always been able to meet the demands imposed by base development in such a demanding theater of operations.

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.

Casey was appointed to command ASCOM.

In his absence, Sverdrup became MacArthur's chief engineer.

Although part of USASOS, ASCOM operated under the control of Sixth Army, moving as far forward as combat operations allowed, developed new bases, and operated them until USASOS was ready to take over, at which point the units under ASCOM simply reverted back to USASOS, allowing a seamless transfer of command.

For the Battle of Leyte Casey's ASCOM had 43, 000 men, of whom 21, 000 were engineers.

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

Work began immediately on the airfield at Tacloban, and commenced on airfields in central Leyte soon after they were captured.

Heavy seasonal rains thwarted attempts to develop the airbases in central Leyte and it was decided to abandon their development and construct a new airbase on the coast at Tanauan.

While suitable from a construction point of view, there was a hill at one end of the runway and the site was already occupied by Sixth Army headquarters.

However, 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.

Casey had intended to come ashore on the first day of the landing at Lingayen Gulf in January 1945 but was delayed a day because the destroyer he was travelling on had to escort a crippled transport.

Despite enormous difficulties ASCOM was able to finish numerous projects on time and some ahead of schedule.

On 13 February 1945, ASCOM was transferred to USASOS and redesignated the Luzon Base Section ( LUBSEC ).

Casey then resumed his post as Chief Engineer, GHQ SWPA.