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.)
