October is celebrated as American Archives Month, with the intent of making history accessible to everyone. Within CECOM’s G9 History Office is an historical archive that reflects over 100 years of the history of the Signal Corps, Fort Monmouth, CECOM and Aberdeen Proving Ground. The documents and photographs chart the progress of the Signal Corps mission, from communicating with flags and telegraph to bouncing signals off the moon and developing world-changing technologies, and how those innovations have developed into CECOM’s mission today of delivering integrated C5ISR weapon systems, business systems, and medical sustainment to enable full spectrum combat operations at the point of need.
From exploring new territories and data-gathering as highlighted in an 1881 journal recording observations from the Greely expedition to the Arctic, to training for a new type of warfare in World War I as documented in one of the largest collections of World War I-era photographic negatives, recording training camp life from around the country, the archive contains unique collections that reflect a changing country. World War I posters highlight recruiting and fundraising efforts. A searchable collection of newspapers from 1917 until 2011 highlights life at Fort Monmouth and all the missions stationed there that later transitioned to APG after BRAC 2005. A souvenir publication given as a Christmas gift to one of the Hello Girls, female telephone operators sent to France in World War I, documents their contributions to the Army’s history. A collection documenting the first space communication under Project Diana, and Dr. Walter McAfee whose theoretical work made it possible, reflects the ground-breaking scientists and engineers who broke new ground every day. Records from the Army’s pigeon training and breeding program remains one of the most popular topics requested by researchers. The collection is not just a snapshot in time, though; new materials are added to the collection every day, to document the ongoing work of CECOM.
The CECOM G9 History Office oversees and manages the archive, serving as institutional memory for CECOM and its predecessor organizations, providing public access to the history of the Command, and developing and maintaining a physical and digital archive of material related to Command. CECOM can trace its roots to the establishment of a Signal Corps training facility and radio research and development laboratory at Camp Little Silver/Camp Alfred Vail, New Jersey in 1917, which gained permanent status as Fort Monmouth in 1925. The archival collection reflects the broad history of technical and scientific advancements that were developed to meet the communications needs of Soldiers dating back to the founding of the Signal Corps in 1860, through the life of Fort Monmouth as “The Home of the Signal Corps” until the 1970s, and modern advancements and changes in communications and electronics technology as the missions and organizations transferred to Aberdeen Proving Ground in 2011.
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