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Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army
Department of the Army
Appointer	The President with Senate advice and consent
Formation	28 July 1866
First holder	Colonel Albert J. Myer
Final holder	Major General David P. Gibbs
Abolished	31 July 1964

The Chief Signal Officer of the United States Army was an office which was established during the American Civil War. Over the course of a century, the chief signal officer was the commanding officer of the U.S. Army Signal Corps which at various times was responsible for combat communications, strategic communications, military aviation, designing and purchasing the Army's radio, radar, and other electronic equipment, weather reporting, Army photography and motion pictures, collection of signal intelligence, and research and development of technologies as diverse as wig-wag flag signaling, cryptography, homing pigeons, FM radio, submarine cable, and satellite communications. The chief signal officer was the principal advisor to the Secretary of War, and after 1947, the Secretary of Defense, on all matters related to communications.

While the office of chief signal officer survived for a century, its responsibilities, role, and position in the Army and American society varied dramatically over time. The office evolved with changing technology, changes in America's role in the world, and the impact of major wars. The chief signal officer was frequently involved in policy discussions with Congress and the rest of the military over the breadth of his responsibilities and the role of the Signal Corps in the Army and American society. The office was eliminated in a 1964 reorganization.

Predecessor positions

Signal officer (1860–1863)

Albert J. Myer was an Army doctor who proposed a new method of flag signaling in 1856. He was given a hearing on his idea by an examination board chaired by Lieutenant Colonel Robert E. Lee in 1859, and was authorized to conduct tests of his method. The tests were promising, and Myer appeared before the House and Senate Military Affairs Committees. In June 1860, Congress voted to fund one signal officer on the Army staff with the rank of major to pursue this work. Myer was appointed to the position. His role was to continue experimenting with signal technology to understand its potential usefulness to the Army.

Cipher disk introduced by Myer during the Civil War, an example of early cryptographic efforts. Note Myer's initials on the device.

After the Civil War began, the signal officer took on new functional responsibilities. First and foremost, Myer placed signal teams in the field to support the fighting forces. In 1861 he was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and began organizing its signal capability. In 1862 the role of the signal officer grew to include developing signal capability in all the Union Armies. By the end of the year there were 146 acting signal officers. An innovation of 1862 was the development of portable field telegraph trains that could follow an army into battle.

In order to deploy signal teams to the field, men had to be trained. The signal officer implemented signaling training programs at both the U.S. Military Academy, and the U.S Naval Academy, as well as schools for training officers and men already in the Army. Notably, Myer's vision included combined operations, and he developed links with the U.S. Navy which were tested at the Battle of Port Royal.

Codes and encryption techniques for the Army were developed by the signal officer. Typically, signal stations were on high terrain so that they had a line of sight to the enemy position they were surveilling. The Confederates could see the signal flags as clearly as the Union forces. The possibility of enemy interception of messages produced an immediate need for codes. Myer introduced simple cipher disks to encrypt messages.

Other than the signal officer, there were no men permanently assigned to signal duties. Generals would detach officers and men from their units for signal duty to be trained, equipped, and organized by Myer. This was unsatisfactory for several reasons, and the signal officer was involved in discussions with the secretary of war and others as to how best to organize the new signaling function.

Signal Officer of the Army (1863–1866)

On 3 March 1863, in the midst of the Civil War, Congress enacted into law the position of Signal Officer of the Army. The authorization for this position was temporary, only for the duration of "the present rebellion." The signal officer of the Army was to have the rank of Colonel. Congress authorized a staff of one lieutenant colonel, and two majors who were to act as inspectors for the Signal Corps. Each Army Corps or military department was to have one captain, and as many lieutenants as the President saw fit to name, up to eight.

Albert Myer was appointed to the new position. He took the Congressional mandate to mean that the signal officer of the Army should provide all the Army's communications, whether by flag, torch, or wire. This was contrary to the desires of Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Not only was Myer removed from his post, but all of the wired telegraph services operated by the Signal Corps were transferred to a rival organization, the United States Military Telegraph Corps. For the remainder of the war, the signal officer of the Army oversaw only "aerial telegraphy", signal flags and torches.

Chief Signal Officer (1866–1964)

Post-Civil War organization

After the Civil War, in 1866, Congress passed a law establishing the peacetime structure of the Army. The office of Chief Signal Officer of the Army was created as a permanent position with the rank of colonel, and gave the Secretary of War the discretion to assign as many as 6 officers, and 100 non-commissioned officers and enlisted personnel to signal duty. Despite this Congressional support, the Signal Corps was all but disbanded in the immediate post-war period. In his 1866 annual report, chief signal officer Fisher reported that his command had mustered out all personnel except those in his office. He auctioned off leftover material from the war. His job had become assembling records of Civil War operations for future historians.

The U.S. Military Telegraph Corps suffered a similar fate. In December 1865 the private telegraph lines which the government had seized at the beginning of the war were returned to their owners. The new lines built by the U.S. Military Telegraph Corps were sold to nearby private companies. By the end of 1866 all of its personnel had been reassigned or dismissed.

Weather organization (1870–1891)

1872 weather map signed by chief signal officer Myer

In 1867 Myer was reappointed chief signal officer. He reimplemented a signaling curriculum at the US Military Academy, continued the development of cryptography, and regained authority over electric telegraphy. In 1870, Myer secured a major peacetime mission, weather reporting. Congress charged the secretary of war with taking weather observations throughout the country and providing warnings of impending storms. Myer was successful in having this responsibility assigned to the chief signal officer in War Department General Order 29, dated 15 March 1870. Citing the needs of commerce and agriculture for weather information, Congress appropriated $250,000 to support the Signal Corps weather reporting in 1872.

The weather reporting network relied heavily on commercial telegraph lines operated by Western Union and others. The need to include weather observation stations in remote areas, and a Congressional mandate to connect lighthouses and life-saving stations expanded the scope of the chief signal officer's responsibilities. He began building an extensive network of telegraph cables within the United States beginning in 1873. This network peaked at 5,077 miles in 1881, before the growth of commercial circuits and budget cuts forced the Signal Corps to begin retiring its lines. In June 1880, Congress raised the permanent rank of the chief signal officer to brigadier general, reflecting both its increased importance and parity with similar Army bureaus.

When chief signal officer Greely took over in 1887, the weather bureau dominated Signal Corps activities. Military signaling had fallen into disuse and Secretary of War William C. Endicott reported that, "The Army has ceased to place reliance on the Signal Corps, but provides for its own instruction in military signaling." This issue persisted, and in his first state of the union message in December 1889, President Benjamin Harrison called on Congress to transfer the Weather Bureau to the Department of Agriculture, noting the deterioration of military signaling. Congress obliged in 1890 and the transfer of responsibility took place on 1 July 1891. The chief signal officer lost his most significant responsibility.

Rebuilding military signaling (1891–1898)

The legislation which removed the Weather Bureau from the Signal Corps, also included explicit language as to the scope of the chief signal officer's responsibilities: "The Chief Signal Officer shall have charge, under the direction of the Secretary of War, of all military signal duties, ...the construction, repair, and operation of military telegraph lines, ...and the duty of collecting and transmitting information for the Army by telegraph or otherwise." The law provided for the Signal Corps to be composed of the chief signal officer, one major, four captains, four first lieutenants, and fifty sergeants.

Telegraph communications among coastal defense installations and between other military bases remained under the purview of the chief signal offer. This included about 700 miles of lines in 1894. Appropriations for anything beyond personnel were small, but under chief signal officer Greely, a number of technical innovations were explored. Experiments included observation balloons, telephones, duplexing telephony on telegraph lines, light-weight field telegraph circuits, and training state reserve units in signaling. The commanding general referred to Greely as "our enterprising chief signal officer."

Spanish-American War organization (1898–1899)

On 25 April 1898, Congress declared war on Spain, beginning the Spanish-American War. While Chief Signal Officer Greely had made progress in recovering the Signal Corps' military signaling capabilities, its 60 members were in no way adequate to support offensives in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines. The United States occupied Guam and annexed Hawaii that same year, adding further to the Army's communications requirements.

In May 1898, Congress authorized the President to create a volunteer signal corps to meet the new needs on a temporary basis for the duration of "the existing war." The Volunteer Signal Corps, which reported to the chief signal officer, was to consist of one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, one major, for each Army corps an additional major, and for each Army division up to two captains, two first lieutenants, two second lieutenants, fifteen sergeants, ten corporals, and thirty privates. Two-thirds of these men were to be skilled electricians or telegraphers. Just over 1,100 officers and men were inducted into the volunteer corps. They were organized into nineteen companies. The 15th Volunteer Signal Company reached Cuba, four companies of volunteers made it ashore in Puerto Rico, and two were dispatched to Manila. The war was over before the remainder of the volunteers could be deployed overseas.

The regular Army portion of the Signal Corps was enlarged during the conflict to include the chief signal officer, a colonel, a lieutenant colonel, two majors, five captains, nine first lieutenants, forty sergeants, fifty corporals, and three hundred privates. Many of the regular troops were dispersed to the volunteer companies to provide leadership to the recruits. Enough regulars remained for the chief signal officer to create four comapnies, designated A, B, C, and D. Companies A and D saw service in Puerto Rico.

Just as Lincoln had done in the Civil War, President McKinley ordered the chief signal officer to take possession of all telegraph circuits in the United States. There was a particular focus on international cables which terminated in New York, Tampa, and Key West. Enciphered messages and reporting on American troop movements were banned. The plain-text messages that remained were harvested for intelligence, which may have played a role in the destruction of the Spanish fleet in Cuba. The chief signal officer was, for a time, America's chief censor and signals intelligence officer.

The Volunteer Signal Corps companies were mustered out at various times in 1898 and 1899.

Global organization (1899–1903)

1903 Signal Corps lines in the Philippines

The acquisition of the Philippines, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam, and Hawaii in 1898 transformed America into a global empire. The discovery of gold on the Klondike and at Nome made Alaska another new center of American interest at the same time. This global expansion of American interests brought new responsibilities to the chief signal officer.

In Cuba and Puerto Rico, the chief signal officer took over all the communications networks on the islands during the military occupation after the surrender of the Spanish. Some telephone and telegraph networks had been damaged during the war, and others were deemed inadequate for the Army's needs. These networks were repaired, extended in geographic scope, and modernized. The Signal Corps turned the telephone and telegraph companies over to the newly constituted civilian government in Puerto Rico in February 1901 and in Cuba in May 1902.

The Philippines were more difficult for the chief signal officer for several reasons. They were significantly further from the continental United States than the Caribbean islands, there was ongoing fighting with an indigenous independence movement, and its size and composition of islands required thousands of miles of new land-line and submarine cables. General Otis, and General MacArthur complained of communication difficulties. The Army in the Philippines was dependent on slow, ship-borne mail for communications to many locations.

In order to lay the submarine cables a specially-equipped cable ship was required. The responsibility for acquiring the ship and operating it was given to the Quartermaster Corps, while the responsibility for laying the cables was the chief signal officer's. The availability of the cable ship was a source of friction between the two departments. In any case, USAT Burnside began laying cable between the islands in December 1900. Future chief signal officers Allen and Squier were aboard as this work began. Just as in the Caribbean, a new civilian government was constituted, but due to ongoing fighting, the transition of the telephone and telegraph businesses to civilian control extended from 1902 to 1907.

In 1900 the only telegraphic communication to Alaska was through a British-owned cable from Canada that connected with Skagway. Congress voted to fund a broad communications network across the territory to be built and operated by the chief signal officer. This was a multi-year effort which Congress extended and expanded several times through 1909. The original intent of the network was to link the Army installations in Alaska, but subsequent funding by Congress connected the network to the contintental United States via undersea cable to Seattle. To reach the remote upper Yukon area, the chief signal officer negotiated a cooperative agreement with Canadian authorities to extend their network from Dawson to Fort Egbert. Chief Signal Officer Greely personally scouted a portion of the route in 1900, and was aboard USAT Burnside when she laid undersea cable in 1903.

During 1900, the chief signal officer supported the American Expeditionary Force which intervened in China during the Boxer Rebellion, laying telegraph cable from the Taku Forts on the coast to Beijing, keeping pace with the Army. The Signal Corps withdrew from China in March 1901.

Root reorganization (1903–1916)

Signal Corps Aircraft 1 in 1910

The Spanish-American War highlighted a number of issues in Army organization. Among those that touched the chief signal officer was that he reported directly to the secretary of war and all of the troops in the Signal Corps reported to him. Thus, the Signal Corps troops in the field were not in the chain of command of the generals which led the armies. The lack of unified command caused inefficiency in both planning and operations. Secretary of War Elihu Root proposed, and in 1903 Congress established a chief of staff of the Army and specified that the major bureaus, including the chief signal officer, and the line combat units would report to the new position, rather than the secretary of war. The hope was that the general staff could force a more unified approach to planning and operations, but as the chief signal officer and other bureau heads continued to command self-contained units which had their funding and personnel directly from Congress, this vision was not fully realized.

One of the roots of the Signal Corps, going back to Albert Myer's wig-wag flags, was the observation of enemy forces and reporting their position. In 1893 Chief Signal Officer Greely purchased a balloon and began instructing signal officers as to its use as an observation platform at the signal school at Fort Riley, Kansas. This balloon was deployed briefly in Cuba during the Spanish-American War in a controversial incident. Details of Spanish troop movements were indeed sighted, but the location of the balloon drew fire from Spanish forces on American troops.

Aeronautical Division founded 1 July 1907.

Congress established the Aviation Section as a separate organization within the Signal Corps in July 1914.

National Defense Act of 1916

In June 1916, Congress passed an extremely detailed act that specified the precise size, structure, and organization of the Army. The Signal Corps was specified as consisting to the chief signal officer, three colonels, eight lieutenant colonels, ten majors, thirty captains, seventy-five first lieutenants, and the aviation section. The aviation section was specified as consisting of one colonel, one lieutenant colonel, eight majors, twenty four captains, and one hundred and fourteen first lieutenants. The enlisted strength of the Signal Corps was to be determined by the President. This act cemented into law a personnel structure that neither the chief of staff nor the secretary of war could change. At the same time, it reduced the size and scope of the general staff, increasing the relative authority and independence of bureau heads, including the chief signal officer.

Marshall reorganizations (1942–194x)

At General George C. Marshall's suggestion, Franklin Roosevelt ordered the Army reorganized into three commands effective 9 March 1942. They were ground forces, air forces, and services of supply, later renamed the Army Service Forces. Under this organization, the chief signal officer reported to the commanding general of the Army Service Forces, Lieutenant General Brehon B. Somervell.

The Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics was established in September 1954. The chief signal officer reported to this newly created position.

McNamara reorganization (1961–1964)

As the Kennedy administration took office in 1961, the chief signal officer was responsible for the third largest branch of the Army. The Signal Corps' specialty in electronics touched every other branch in the service, often to those branches frustration. Not only was there friction between the chief signal officer and other branches of the Army, but the newly-installed Secretary of Defense, Robert McNamara, sought to improve the efficiency of the Army. His Project 80 working group recommended a functional reorganization. Its plan would strip the Signal Corps and the other technical services of their operational, training, personnel management, doctrine, and logistical functions. In January 1962, President Kennedy approved the reorganization. As part of this reorganization, effective 1 August 1962, the chief signal officer reported to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Military Operations.

The 1962 reorganization created both short-term friction as people learned their new jobs, and revealed structural issues which required further consideration. Chief Signal Officer Cook retired in frustration in 1963, triggering additional study of the chief signal officer position. As a result of this work, on 1 March 1964 the office of Chief Signal Officer was abolished. The chief signal officer's operational responsibilities were assigned to the newly-created US Army Strategic Communications Command. Major General Gibbs became Chief of Communications-Electronics, a staff position which could take an Army-wide perspective on technology matters.

Successor positions

The US Army Strategic Communications Command was activated in the reorganization that abolished the chief signal officer position. It was commanded by a major general. The strategic communications command installed, maintained, and operated all the Army's long-distance networks, which it took over from the chief signal officer. It also absorbed the Joint Communication Agency at Fort Richie, Maryland, the US Army Interagency Communications Agency at Winchester, Virginia, the US Army Signal Radio Propagation Agency at Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, and the US Army Signal Communications Security Agency.

Colonel Julia M. Donley, 43rd chief of signal

Army regimental system reorganization (1986–present)

An aspect of the McNamara reorganization, the assignment of signal units to multiple commands instead of a single centralized Signal Corps, remains in force today. Over time, the Army came to believe that the loss of connection between signal troops in diverse commands hurt unit cohesion. To remedy this issue, the Army established the Signal Corps as a regiment on 1 June 1986. While the head of the regiment has been titled Chief Signal Officer and Chief of Signal, the position does not command the troops of the Signal Corps as the historic office once did. Instead, the head of the regiment is responsible for personnel and career planning, professional development, and advocacy for all signal soldiers and organizations wherever assigned. The chief of signal is responsible for promoting pride and camaraderie among signal units, and documenting the history and traditions of the Signal Corps. Since the regimental system was implemented, various positions have been designated as chief of signal. These include, the commander of the Army signal center, the commander of Fort Gordon, and the commandant of the Army Signal School. The current chief of signal is Colonel Julia M. Donley, commandant of the Army Signal School, who took office on 21 June 2024. Counting the pre-1964 officers, she is the 43rd head of the Signal Corps.

Chief Signal Officers (1863–1964)

Image	Rank	Name	Begin Date	End Date	Notes
	Colonel	Albert J. Myer	29 April 1863	10 November 1863	Army Signal Corps established. Electric telegraphy removed from chief signal officer's responsibility.
	Lieutenant Colonel	William J. L. Nicodemus	15 November 1863	26 December 1864	In his annual report, a public document, Nicodemus revealed that the Union had broken Confederate telegraph codes. Secretary of war Stanton had him dismissed from the Army for this breach of security.
	Colonel	Benjamin F. Fisher	11 January 1865	15 November 1866
	Brigadier General	Albert J. Meyer	21 August 1867	24 August 1880	Electric telegraphy added to chief signal officer's responsibility. Weather reporting duties assigned, 15 March 1870. Died in office.
	Brigadier General	William B. Hazen	17 December 1880	16 January 1887	Died in office.
	Brigadier General	Adolphus W. Greely	3 March 1887	9 February 1906	The Weather Bureau was transferred from the chief signal officer to the Department of Agriculture 1 July 1891. Takes control of telegraph networks in Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Philippines in 1898. Returns them to new civilian governments in 1902, 1902, and 1907. Congress funds construction of Alaska Communications System, May 1900.
	Brigadier General	James Allen	10 February 1906	13 February 1913	Created the Aeronautical Division in 1907. Purchased the Army's first aircraft in 1909.
	Brigadier General	George P. Scriven	5 March 1913	13 February 1917	Congress assigns all military aviation to the chief signal officer, July 1914.
	Major General	George O. Squier	14 February 1917	31 December 1923	President Wilson removes military aviation from chief signal officer by executive order 2862, May 1918.
	Major General	Charles M. Saltzman	1 January 1924	8 January 1928
	Major General	George S. Gibbs	9 January 1928	30 June 1931
	Major General	Irving J. Carr	1 July 1931	31 December 1934
	Major General	James B. Allison	1 January 1935	30 September 1937
	Major General	Joseph O. Mauborgne	1 October 1937	30 September 1941
	Major General	Dawson Olmstead	1 October 1941	30 June 1943
	Major General	Harry C. Ingles	1 July 1943	31 March 1947	Development and purchasing of radar removed from chief signal officer, August 1944.
	Major General	Spencer B. Akin	1 April 1947	31 March 1951
	Major General	George I. Back	2 May 1951	30 April 1955
	Lieutenant General	James D. O'Connell	1 May 1955	30 April 1959
	Major General	Ralph T. Nelson	1 May 1959	30 June 1962
	Major General	Earle F. Cook	1 July 1962
	Major General	David P. Gibbs	June 1963	1 March 1964