US Army Signal Corps - Episode #62

Highlights

The US Army Signal Corps in WW1

The founding of the US Army Signal Corps @ |01:30

The Signal Corps in WW1 @ |04:25

War In The Sky - Signal Corps Connections @ |09:00

Alvin York’s crisis of conscience w/ Dr. Edward Lengel @ |13:30

Germany’s starts big push w/ Mike Shuster @ |20:25

Women in the AEF w/ Dr. Susan Zeiger @ |25:15

The Hello Girls w/ Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs @ |32:05

100C/100M in Worcester MA w/ Brian McCarthy @ |40:35

Speaking WW1 - Shody @ |46:15

Social Media Pick w/ Katherine Akey @ |48:15----more----

Opening

Welcome to World War 1 centennial News - episode #62 - It’s about WW1 THEN - what was happening 100 years ago this week  - and it’s about WW1 NOW - news and updates about the centennial and the commemoration.

Today is March 9th, 2018 and our guests for this week include:

Dr. Edward Lengel, exploring Alvin York’s crisis of conscience as he entered the military

Mike Shuster, from the great war project blog with an update on German war activities in May

Dr. Susan Zeiger telling us about the women workers of the American Expeditionary Forces

Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs with the story of the Hello Girls

Brian McCarthy, sharing the 100 Cities/100 Memorials project in Worcester Massachusetts

Katherine Akey with the WW1 commemoration in social media

WW1 Centennial News -- a weekly podcast brought to you by the U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, the Pritzker Military Museum and Library and the Starr foundation.

I’m Theo Mayer - the Chief Technologist for the Commission and your host. Welcome to the show.

[MUSIC]

Preface

This week several stories came up that pointed to US Army Signal Corps. You know.. they’re not just the guys who made the movies and took the pictures…  

Actually they have a heritage of being “New Tech” gurus  - taking initial responsibility for classic ideas, later managed by other organizations including military intelligence, weather forecasting and especially aviation.

That because it all started with a visionary guy named Albert James Myer. Myer started as a Medical Officer in Texas before the civil war and ended up a brigadier general with the title of First Chief Signal Officer and a legacy as “The father of the US Army Signal Corps”

Early on - Myer came up with a flag waving scheme to send messages during combat - which the Army adopted it in 1860 - one year before the start of the Civil War. It’s high falutin’ name was Aerial Telegraphy but, everyone called it WIG WAG.

During the Civil War, WigWag was used on the battlefield to direct artillery fire-- and Myer started to experiment with balloons, electric telegraph and other kinds of new tech.

Because he fostered such an innovation culture in the signal corps - ten years late, In 1870 when the US government AKA the congress decided to  mandate a National Weather Service - they tasked Myer and the Signal Corps to create it - which he did to great international acclaim.

Myer died a decade later in 1880, and his lab “slash” school in Arlington Virginia was ultimately renamed Fort Myer to honor the father of the US Signal Corps.

By the turn of the century the US Army Signal Corps had taken on a leadership role not just with visual signalling but also with the telegraph, telephone, cable communications, meteorology, combat photography and had even sprouted an aeronautical and aviation section.

Nearly a decade before American Forces engaged the enemy, the wright brothers made test flights of the army’s first airplane built to Signal Corps’ specifications. Tests appropriately performed at Fort Myers. Army aviation stayed with the Signal Corps until May of 1918, when the Aviation Section of the Signal Corps is transformed by President Wilson’s  Executive order, into the Army Air Service - the forerunner of the United States Air Force.

With that as a setup, let’s jump into our Centennial Time Machine - which the Signal Corps DID NOT develop - and roll back 100 years to learn what the US Army Signal Corps was - during the War that C