This
1976 Army film explores the history of the
United States Army Signal Corps.
The United States Army Signal Corps (USASC) develops, tests, provides, and manages communications and information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces. It was established in
1860, the brainchild of
United States Army Major Albert J. Myer, and has had an important role from the
American Civil War through to the current day. Over its history, it had the initial responsibility for a number of functions and new technologies that are currently managed by other organizations, including military intelligence, weather forecasting, and aviation.
The Signal Corps mission statement is as follows:
Support for the command and control of combined arms forces.
Signal support includes
Network Operations (information assurance, information dissemination management, and network management) and management of the electromagnetic spectrum. Signal support encompasses all aspects of designing, installing, data communications networks that employ single and multi-channel satellite, tropospheric scatter, terrestrial microwave, switching, messaging, video-teleconferencing, visual information, and other related systems.
Under Myer’s (00:03:45:00) command, the unit transformed
sign language used to communicate with deaf persons into a semaphore system incorporating red and white “wigwag” flags. During the
Civil War, the Signal Corps operated air balloons and telegraph machines. (00:04:30:00) By the time the
United States entered
World War I in
1917, (00:06:30:00) the corps had integrated the airplane and more advanced technology into its communications systems.
In
World War II, the Signal Corps' size and role in military affairs increased dramatically. From a staff of 27,
000 persons, it expanded to over 350,000 men and women by
1945. The need to coordinate swift and accurate communication for air, ground, and naval units required more sophisticated technology and services. The Signal Corps pioneered in the development of radar (00:09:03:00) to detect approaching aircraft as well as mobile communications and deciphering machines.
Vintage footage of
Pearl Harbor can be seen at (00:
10:15:00)
In addition to its primary role in military transmissions, the unit also played a key role in producing training films for army and civilian personnel, and documenting combat missions. During World War II, noted
Hollywood producers, directors, and photographers (such as
Darryl Zanuck,
Frank Capra,
John Huston, and
George Stevens) all served in the Signal Corps. They brought their talents in the motion picture studio to the field of battle, while dozens of others provided instruction to the personnel
.
In the European theater of operations (
ETO), Signal Corps photographers took part in the landings in
North Africa, (00:12:00:00)
Italy, and later
Normandy.
Amazing sea warfare can be seen at (00:13:25:00). On
D-Day (
June 6, 1944), members of the unit hit the
Utah and
Omaha beaches, forwarding the first film of the amphibious assaults to
England via carrier pigeons. (00:13:53:00) The Signal Corps subsequently documented every major military campaign in the ETO, producing millions of feet of combat film and hundreds of thousands of developed still images. From these sources, the Army supplied the news media in the United States and elsewhere with imagery of the war, using
24-hour air delivery service and later sophisticated telephoto electronic-transmission equipment
In the course of photographing World War II, the Signal Corps also played a crucial role in documenting evidence of
Nazi atrocities and the
Holocaust. Many of the early still and moving pictures
of newly liberated
Nazi concentration camps were taken by Army photographers such as
Arnold E. Samuelson and
J Malan Heslop. A number of these images were later transmitted to news agencies in
America and other countries, where they helped to inform the world about the horrors of
Nazism and the plight of concentration camp prisoners.
The US Army and the
Allied military governments of
Germany eventually used these photographs to confront
German prisoners of war in the United States and the
German population with the evidence of
Nazi crimes.
World tensions increased with the
Cold War and the
Berlin Airlift. (00:18:05:00) To sustain the Army's worldwide commitments, it again became necessary to enlarge the capacity of every activity on-post. During the
Korean War and
Vietnam War the Signal Corps operated
Officer Candidate Schools initially at
Fort Monmouth in
1950–
1953, graduating 1,234 officers, and at
Fort Gordon (00:20:15:00) in
1965–
1968, which produced 2,
213 signal officers. (
The World War II Signal
OCS program at Fort Monmouth, from
1941–1946 graduated 21,
033 Signal Corps
Officers.)
- published: 11 Mar 2016
- views: 7