Happy Sesquicentennial, Signal Corps!

Yup, our friends at the Signal Corps have been around for 150 years!

The fellow in the middle is Albert Myer, an Army doctor and the first signal officer. The idea of a dedicated corps was also his. During the early part of the Civil War his idea of using flags for daytime communication and torches for at night was put into use to direct the fire of a harbor battery at Fort Wool against Confederate positions opposite Fort Monroe. Congress authorized a regular Signal Corps in 1863 based on this success.

Since those early days, the Signal Corps has gone on to be early adopters of technology, holding important roles in communication from the Civil War up to the present. They were also initially responsible for things like military intelligence, weather forecasting and aviation, back in the infancy of those programs. Today they continue to develop, test, provide and manage communications/information systems support for the command and control of combined arms forces.

We missed their official birthday back in June,  but CNet mentioned them yesterday, so we thought we'd give them a quick shout-out!

Looking for more info? Check out the Signal Corps 150th Anniversary Commemoration Site.

Also take a look at the memorial for Pete Zakutansky, a Signaleer who trained pigeons for night flights and still holds the pigeon night flight record. He was an innovator in both communications and animal training.

Or check out CARL's Signal Corps resources!